Biodiversity & Conservation

A flatworm - Oligocladus sanguinolentus

A flatworm

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Distribution map

Oligocladus sanguinolentus recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

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Oligocladus sanguinolentus is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Platyhelminthes Flatworms
Class Turbellaria
Authority (Quatrefages, 1852)
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Recorded at several locations off west Scotland, Wales and the Isles of Scilly but may occur throught British and Irish waters.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Often found intertidally on the smooth undersides of rocks at low tide or under red algae and Laminaria spp.. It has been found down to a depth of 60 m.
Text page icon Description Procerodes littoralis is a small free-living flatworm that reaches up to 22 mm in length. It is under twice as long as it is wide. It has a flat and bilaterally symmetrical body. Flatworms are notoriously hard to identify in the field. However, Procerodes littoralis is whitish to yellowish-brown in colour with a marginal band of blue-grey, a mid-dorsal line and lateral brownish-red offshoots. It has two relatively long tentacles on its head. It has many eyes both at the base of the tentacles and on the underside of the head.
Identifying features
  • Up to 22 mm in length, 13 mm in width.
  • A pair of anterior marginal tentacles.
  • Length of tentacles much greater than their basal width.
  • Ventral mouth in cerebral region, in front of a bell shaped pharynx.
  • About 50 eyes at the base of each tentacle and up to 30 with each cerebral group.
  • The mouth is arrow-shaped.
  • Three major branches to the gut, situated amongst multiple yolk glands.
Additional information icon Additional information No text entered

This review can be cited as follows:

Morvan Barnes 2008. Oligocladus sanguinolentus. A flatworm. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 31/07/2010]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=3951>