This tiny, but beautiful, flatworm (15 -20 mm) was found in a most unlikely place: in terrible, surgey conditions, in less than 1 metre of water on what appeared to be a battered, dead piece of coral swirling around in brown/foamy soup.  The striking fuchsia colour drew enough attention that I turned my swim around, broken coral in hand, and headed out to clearer water where I could actually see what I was looking at.  Unfortunately, it appears that the worm was slightly beaten up as well. After documenting as best I could,  I dove to 3 metres and wedged its host piece of dead coral into one of the secretion sponge-covered platforms that have formed along Ma’alaea Bay.  I’m hoping the flatworm survived. For more photos, please see John Hoover’s Flatworm site and Sea Slugs and Flatworms of the South West Indian Ocean.   The National University of Singapore has an excellent report on species found in waters in an around Singapore and Pseudoceros cf rubronanus is one.  They call into question the veracity of Newman and Cannon’s identification, citing they may not have considered other worms with similar red/fushsia bodies, hence the cf designation?

Related Images: