Acotylean C
all photos by Cory Pittman
photos 1-2: Black Rock, Maui, 45-65 ft.  (Halimeda community)
photos 3-4: "Airport Beach," Maui. 50-57 ft. / 30-40 ft. (Halimeda community)

Body elongate oval with two nuchal tentacles. Translucent with a beige tint and scattered white spots, sometimes indistinct. However, in the field usually bright green, probably resulting from ingested plant matter ramified throughout the body in the digestive system. A narrow marginal band lacks the green color, when present. Two small, widely-spaced, red-brown spots on the midline, the first slightly anterior to the animal's center.

Cory writes: "This worm is a Halimeda associate with a maximum size of about 10 mm. It is probably the most common flatworm in the Halimeda beds. I don't know whether its green color is pigment or if it is somehow retaining chloroplasts or zooxanthellae. The color will fade to brown over time, though, which might suggest the latter."

"The first two photos are of a large, intensely colored animal and were taken the same day it was collected. The worm in third photo was probably somewhat less intensely colored originally but may have faded a bit since the shot was taken one day after collection. In contrast, animals photographed seven days after collection are completely brown. The species is also peculiar in that young animals have a patch of cerebral eyes between the tentacles which they loose as they mature. The bottom (5th) photo is of a very small worm with prominent cerebral eyes ... and above it is a photo of one that had been held for seven days before it was photographed--a medium sized worm that still shows a faint trace of the cerebral eyes."

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