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Flatworm, Planarian
Conservation status: Least Concern
Flatworms are the most primative of worms. They breathe through their skin and their gut has only one opening - the mouth. Many flatworms are parasitic, but flatworms, such as this one found in Girraween, are free living.
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Scientific Classification
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Platyhelminthes
Turbellaria
Seriata
Geoplanidae
Caenoplana
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| Free living flatworms are also known as Planarians. Some live in the water and some live on land. Land Planarians are more brightly coloured than their water cousins. They are usually 10 cm or more in length and are often yellow, orange, green or even deep blue with contrasting stripes down their back. They live in damp places such as under logs and rocks.
Planarians are hunters and they use their sticky mucus to trap prey. They are known to eat millipedes, isopods and other worms.
Flatworms can reproduce sexually, but many can also reproduce asexually by a process called fragmentation. Fragmentation means that if a worm is broken into pieces, each piece can grow into a whole new worm.
Flatworms may look like leeches, but leeches are a kind of segmented worm - a much more complex organism. You can tell the two worms apart easily by how they move. Leeches "loop" along a surface like a caterpillar, while flatworms glide like a slug or snail.
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