Marine Flatworms: The World of Polyclads

By Leslie L. Newman and Lester L. Cannon

Marine Flatworms provides a fascinating introduction to the intriguing world of polyclad flatworms, a group of large, free-living marine Platyhelminthes, which are found throughout the world but are most colourful in tropical waters. Although not related to molluscs, they are often mistaken for sea slugs because of their brilliant colour patterns.

Written in an accessible style by two leading experts in the field, this book explores flatworms’ unusual structure, feeding habits, their curious reproductive behaviour (including ‘penis fencing’), their mimicry and toxicology.

With a foreword by Professor Reinhardt Kristensen of the Copenhagen Zoological Museum, Marine Flatworms is the first comprehensive guide to polyclad families and genera. It contains more than 300 colour photographs from every part of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: Apr 17, 2003
• ISBN: 9780643102682

Book preview

MARINE FLATWORMS

THE WORLD OF POLYCLADS

Dedicated to Andrew & Jenny

MARINE FLATWORMS

THE WORLD OF POLYCLADS

Leslie Newman & Lester Cannon

photographs by Leslie Newman and Andrew Flowers

© Leslie Newman & Lester Cannon 2003

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO PUBLISHING for all permission requests.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Newman, Leslie J.

Marine flatworms: the world of polyclads.

Bibliography.

Includes index.

ISBN 0 643 06829 5.

1. Polycladida. 2. Polycladida - Identification.

I. Cannon, L.R.G. (Lester Robert Glen), 1940-.

II. Flowers, Andrew E. III. CSIRO Publishing. IV. Title.

592.42

Available from

CSIRO PUBLISHING

150 Oxford Street (PO Box 1139)

Collingwood VIC 3066

Australia

The support of the Southern Cross University during the production of this book is gratefully acknowledged.

Front cover: Acanthozoon sp., Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.

Back cover: Pseudoceros ferrugineus, Western Australia.

Set in 10.5/14 Minion

Cover and text design by James Kelly

Printed in Singapore by Craft Print International Ltd.

Foreword

While hunting for new phyla in Australia, I had the pleasure of working with Leslie Newman and Lester Cannon, and I am delighted to write this foreword. I did not find new phyla but I learned so much about flatworms in Australia that I decided to teach my graduate students at the University of Copenhagen about these ‘fabulous flatworms’—the polyclads—to give them a better understanding of the real beauty of the ecosystem of the Coral Sea. Unfortunately I could only find hardcore systematic papers like Prudhoe and Faubel about polyclads—with not a single word about problems like Batesian and Mullerian mimicry.

Most of my students know of flatworms only as notorious human parasites or dull free-living creatures in freshwater or intertidally in the sea. My students have also learned that many of the free-living flatworms are very tiny and live generally in the meiobenthos—between sand grains or in mud. However, several students have seen the brightly coloured polyclad flat-worms when scuba diving in tropical waters. Often they have mistaken these beautiful creatures of the sea for nudibranchs (gastropods) and there is a good reason for that—it is mimicry. This book is therefore a ‘must’ for all students of invertebrate zoology. For the first time the biology of the polyclads is coming to light. I must give the authors my compliments for covering such subjects as mimicry, toxins, warning colours and reproductive behavior. General textbooks have now to be rewritten with regard to these subjects.

In the Arctic Waters we call the pteropods (gastropods) ‘sea butterflies’. When Leslie Newman showed me for the first time a swimming, gloriously coloured polyclad at North Stradbroke Island in Queensland, I thought that the association with butterflies was much better for this flatworm. Like many toxic swallowtails, the polyclads are very fragile and at a slightest touch they will fragment. Therefore, they have to advertise their warning colours. What is less known is that, like swallowtails, the polyclads are masters of mimicry. It is excellent that this book covers this phenomenon and shows, with fabulous photographs, that several polyclads copy toxic nudibranchs.

The Persian carpet worm, Pseudobiceros bedfordi, swims with a graceful motion as it undulates its margin.

I particularly like the chapter about collecting, handling and identification of polyclads. On a worldwide basis, we need more people to enter the field of biodiversity. Therefore, we need experts like Lester Cannon and Leslie Newman who can educate young people in sectioning, drawing and identification of different taxa, including the difficult groups like the polyclads.

Author Leslie Newman collecting at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef.

Like the polyclads, the coral reef ecosystems are very fragile, but their biodiversity is enormous. Several field guides have already covered the beauty of some of the tropical polyclads, but none of these has provided an identification chapter with colour pictures of over 200 species. I would like to congratulate the authors for the information presented in this book. Hopefully, it will get people out looking at and photographing these wonderful worms—as well as the duller species in temperate and arctic waters.

Reinhardt Mobjerg Kristensen

Professor of Invertebrate Zoology Zoological Museum University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Polyclads are very fragile and at a slightest touch they will fragment.

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without a great deal of help from many sources. We would like to especially thank the following field assistants: Collette Bagnato, Wayne Ellis, Shireen Fahey, Andrew Flowers, Kylie Jennings, Maleta Luke, Vivien Matson-Larkin, Sue and Peter Morrison, Carolyn and Hugh Peterken, Sherry Reed and Amanda Reichelt-Brushett.

We appreciate the generous photographic contributions and species records from so many fellow photographers, scientists and flatworm enthusiast including; Gerry Allen, Charles Anderson and Sue Buttress, Jim Anderson, Dave Behrens, Jim Black, Robert Bolland, Rod Bray, David Brunckhorst, Leslie Chan, John Chuk, Neville Coleman, Bruce Cowell, Helmut Debelius, Peter Davie, Anne Dupont, Valda Fraser, Cecile and Norbert Genetiaux, Pat and Lori Colin (Coral Reef Research Foundation), Terry Gosliner, Tracy Gray, Morio Hagiya, Carole Harris, Cleveland Hickman, Johann Hinterkircher, Rick Hochberg, Ron Holcom, John Hoover, Scott Johnson, Reinhardt Kristensen, Jiirgen Kuchinke, Ian Lock, Larry Madrigal, Julie Marshall, Claus Nielsen, Wayne O’Connor, Jean-Marc Ouin, David Paul, Gustav Paulay, Marina Poddubetskala, Paul Provic, Sigmer Quiroga and Marcela Bolanos, Keven Reed, Raphael Ritson-Williams, Bill Rudman Peter Schupp, Martin Sørensen, Roger Steene, Miki Tonozuka, Rob van der Loos, Lindsay Warren, Leigh Winsor and Peter Wirtz.

Many more people helped in special ways and these include: Nick Alexander, Pam Beesley, Rene and John Carson, John Daly, Anno Faubel, Klaus Fielder, Hugh Govan, Matthew Jebb, Reinhardt Kristensen, Marian Litvaitis, Laurie McGrath, Marsha Memory, Nico Michiels, David Miller, Alf Nilsen, Jon Norenberg, Keven Reed, Mary Rice and Wolfgang Seifarth.

Heron and Wistari Reefs, part of the Great Barrier Reef.

Flatworms could not have been identified without the expert histological preparations made by Zeinab Khalil, Barbara Littman, as well as Ray Johnson and the staff of the Northern Rivers Pathology Laboratory, Lismore Base Hospital. Specimens were curated at the Queensland Museum by Kim Sewell and Mal Bryant. Special thanks go to Amanda Reichelt-Brushett for her assistance with the colour illustration.

The Australian Biological Resource Study, Canberra; the Australia Research Council, Canberra; The Christensen Family, Palo Alto California and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC have generously provided financial research support over the years. We wish to also thank William Brogan and Robert van der Loos for their most generous support for collecting trips.

We especially wish to thank the following institutions and their staff for their kind use of facilities and support: the Queensland Museum (which also holds large collections and type specimens of many of the worms discussed); the School of Environmental Science and Management,