APROCEAN

 

tardibabe

I looooove watching flatworms hunt for food 🤩 it’s like watching an action movie 😂

I believe they’re Catenulida, which is a group that comprises around 100 species that are distributed worldwide. These flatworms can be found in different freshwater environments such as fast-flowing streams, temporary pools, lakes, ponds and moist terrestrial habitats. Don’t you worry tho, they aren’t dangerous to humans 😁

Even if these worms are carnivorous predators, they can also be subject to predation and parasitism, especially by ciliates and flagellates. Kind of ironic isn’t it? 😅 They usually feed on ciliates, amoebae, rotifers, Ostracods, algae, other flatworms and other planktonic invertebrates 👀

Catenulida possess statocysts, sensory organs associated with the brain which help the animal to orient itself in space but also different chemoreceptors helping it to detect injured or healthy preys! Crazy to think that these tiny worms have a brain right? It’s a very primitive one but critical on a evolutionary scale!

Hunting vibes are a courtesy of @accelerator.jengold 🖤

Video taken with my iPhone mounted on a BA310E Motic microscope with an @ilabcam adapter 🔬

References:
Brusa, F., Leal-Zanchet, A. M., Noreña, C., & Damborenea, C. (2020). Phylum Platyhelminthes. In Thorp and Covich's Freshwater Invertebrates (pp. 101-120). Academic Press.

Kolasa, J., & Tyler, S. (2010). Flatworms: turbellarians and nemertea. In Ecology and classification of North American freshwater invertebrates (pp. 143-161). Academic Press.

Larsson, K., & Jondelius, U. (2008). Phylogeny of Catenulida and support for Platyhelminthes. Organisms Diversity & Evolution, 8(5), 378-387.

Noreña, C., Damborenea, C., & Brusa, F. (2015). Phylum Platyhelminthes. In Thorp and Covich's Freshwater Invertebrates (pp. 181-203). Academic Press.

22 h