Macro photos of planaria flatworms

[EWTC]

I posted a series of pictures of planaria on my blog today. I think they are Cura foremanii, but I’m not completely sure. Photographing these little beasts couldn’t have been much easier. I just put them in a white tray holding a very shallow amount of water and shot them with a 35mm macro lens and ring flash, shooting straight down to avoid any reflections of the flash on the surface of the water. After taking a series of photos of the worms gliding around the tray I fed them some very tiny fragments of frozen bloodworms. The mouth of a planarian is in the middle of the ventral surface of the animal, and not in the head. These worms feed through a tube-shaped pharynx that extends out of the mouth. You can see in the photos below that the planaria feed by wrapping around the food item and positioning their ventrally positioned mouth against the food.

I just love these critters!

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com

planaria copyright Ernie Cooper 2012 sm for post by ernie.cooper, on Flickr
planarian feeding cc copyright Ernie Cooper 2012 sm for post by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

[Patriot]

wow! That's some pretty good stuff there.

[Wasserpest]

Nice, I really enjoy reading your posts since you give some interesting background information, both on the subject and the techniques used. And the photos are outstanding! Thanks for sharing.

[EWTC]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

Nice, I really enjoy reading your posts since you give some interesting background information, both on the subject and the techniques used. And the photos are outstanding! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you! I really appreciate the feedback!

EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com