Magic carpet flatworrm (Prostheceraeus sp) — Habitat, Photos

Q: Where can you find Magic carpet flatworrm?

Magic carpet flatworrm can be found in: Bali, Malaysia East, Indo-Pacific Central, Indo-Pacific, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines.

It is a member of Euryleptidae family

Its shape is oval, elongated with often very wrinkled edges. Its livery is whitish, translucent with many fine longitudinal from reddish brown to black lines (15-20 lines on each side of the median line) sometimes with whitish spots. It has a relatively thick white to yellowish longitudinal central line.
Apart from two white with brown spots tentacles, relatively discrete, located at the level of the front part and resulting from the folding of it (characteristic of the genus), it is devoid of dorsal appendages.

The ventral surface of the body is more uniform in color, clear and whitish. It has a central suction cup formed of the single orifice "mouth-anus" extended by a pharynx that allows it to stay on the bottom if necessary. The body is covered with tiny eyelashes (invisible to the naked eye) that allow the animal to move by crawling at sometimes surprising speeds. The animal can also move by swimming by rippling movements when it is in full water.

Habitat: Indo-West Pacific

Its diet is not known, but it probably feeds on dead animals, unicellular organisms and also fixed animals (sponges, bryozoans, ascidians).

The incomplete digestive tract is formed by a pharynx that opens on a single opening on the ventral side, the mouth, which also serves as anus. Ingested foods and undigested foods are regurgitated by this same opening.
To feed, the animal devages part of its pharynx, forming a tube secreting a mucus and allowing to "suck" its prey.

Euryleptidae is a family of marine polyclad flatworms.