Eurylepta cornuta - A euryleptid polyclad turbellarian (Marine flatworm images)

Specimen above found in a sample of material scraped from the side of a pontoon at Newlyn Marina, Newlyn, Cornwall. 04.05.15.

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- dorsal view 3

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- dorsal view 4

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- dorsal view 5

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- dorsal view 6

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- ventral view 2

Specimen above found in sample taken from pontoons at Newlyn Marina, Newlyn, Cornwall. 13.12.14. This species was common in the sample, and the example shown seems quite typical for the species, as described by Gibson in the Synopses of the British Fauna Polyclad Turbellarians.

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- under lowershore rock 4

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- under lowershore rock 5

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- animal / cut-out 1

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- in container 1

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- ventral view 3

Polyclad turbellarian
Eurylepta cornuta
- comparison with Lang vars. 1

Specimen above found under a rock in a pool on the lowershore at Albert Pier reef, Penzance, Cornwall. 10.02.13.

This species is labelled here as Eurylepta cornuta (Müller OF, 1776) on the basis of the number of cerebral eyes and their convergence. There seems to be considerable variation in this species.

Lang's plates of both Eurylepta cornuta var. lobianchi (Lang, 1879) and Eurylepta cornuta var. melobesiarum (Schmidtlein, 1880), see comparison above, show how similar the specimen is. I'm using currently accepted names here and they are much the same as Lang used. If we compare the specimen with both vars. there does seem to be some intermediate characteristics that one can gain from the images and in absence of cited literature. Literature on this species and a similar species Oligocladus sanguinolentus Lang, 1884, with which this species may be confused is very old and hard to obtain. Works that are needed here include ''Die Polycladen Seeplanarien Des Golfes'' by Arnold Lang and ''Studien über Polycladen'' by Karl Alfred Sixten Bock, 1913.

Looking at the British Polyclad Turbellarians by S. Prudhoe (Synopses of the British Fauna) there is nothing really in the description of Eurylepta cornuta that would clearly define that it is not this species. Eurylepta cornuta and its vars. clearly give the species a fairly high degree of variability. See comparison image.

The cerebral features of the specimen here seem to point to Eurylepta cornuta (Müller OF, 1776) and what we have, in my opinion, seems to be pretty much intermediate between its two vars.. We have the white patch and convergence of the cerebral eyes (var. lobianchi) over smaller white dots size; and the colour, arrangement, and size and shape of branches (var. melobesiarum).

Please remember if turning rocks over to replace them carefully where they were found, species like this are extremely delicate.

APHOTOMARINE

An educational resource dedicated mainly to the photography
and diversity of marine life that can be found in coastal waters
and intertidal areas of Great Britain and Ireland by David Fenwick.

APHOTOMARINE

An educational resource dedicated mainly to the photography and diversity of marine life that can be found in coastal waters and intertidal areas of Great Britain and Ireland by David Fenwick.

An educational resource dedicated mainly to the photography
and diversity of marine life that can be found in coastal waters
and intertidal areas of Great Britain and Ireland by David Fenwick.