Pseudoceros monostichos  Newman and Cannon 1994

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This species has been observed on Mayotte and Madagascar Islands


Order : Polycladida
Suborder : Cotylea
Superfamily : Pseudocerotoidea
Family : Pseudocerotidae
Distribution : Indo West Pacific
Maximal size : 35 mm
Abundance :


Species characteristics :

Cream background with a narrow black-brown longitudinal median line which doesn't reach the anterior and posterior margins. This line is bordered by a white narrow band and surrounded by a light brown narrow band.

There are four indistinct marginal bands; the inner one is yellow intensifying to green, then blue and a purple rim

Pseudoceros monostichos
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Photo Yvon Gildas
Mayotte, Passe en S, buoy n°6, 10 m, 23 June 2010

Bibliographic data :

When restin, animals may have a dimpled dorsal surface
   The ventral side is darker cream with the same marginal bands and a median brown longitudinal stripe.
   The cerebral cluster of eyes is obscured due to dark pigment of the median line.
   Pseudotentacles simple folds
   Habitat : Found on the reef crest under rubble and on the reef slope under ledges
   Ethymology : mono = one, stichos = line ; for its single median stripe

References :

Discover life : Pseudoceros monostichos
   Marine flatworms of the world : Pseudoceros monostichos 1 or 2
   Nudipixel : Pseudoceros monostichos

Publications :

Newman, L.J. & Cannon, L.R.G. (1994). Biodiversity of Australian polyclad flatworms. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 36: 159–163
    Newman, L.J. & Cannon, L.R.G. (1998). Pseudoceros (Platyhelminthes, Polycladida) from the Indo-Pacific with twelve new species from Australia and Papua New Guinea. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 46: 293–323
    Newman, L.J. & Cannon, L.R.G. (2003). Marine Flatworms: the world of Polyclads. CSIRO Publishing : Melbourne 112

Other photos of Pseudoceros monostichos :


 

Yvon Gildas

Mayotte, Patate de la cardinale, Longoni, 12 m, 26 July 2009, size : 40 mm

When restin, animals may have a dimpled dorsal surface


Alain-Benoît Rassat

Madagascar, Nosy bé, plateau des Arches, 14 m, 11 November 2014, size : 25 mm

 


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