cf Euryleptid 2
photos 1-2: Dave Leonhardt, "Black Rock" Maui; photo 3: Pam Madden, tidepool, Kohala Coast, Hawaii; photo 4: Karolle Wall, Kihei, Maui.

On 22 June 2020 Dave Leonhardt wrote: "I was out diving today and came across a flatworm in the sand and honestly don't know how I spotted it cause it was only about 5mm moving underneath some plants. Found at blackrock on Maui in about 22ft of water in the daytime. On one of the shots, there may even be a very tiny small parasitic crab on its back."

Dave's worm matches Euryleptid #2 on the Newman & Cannon CD with regard to the white background color, ruffled margin with yellow edge, and orange-red tentacles. However, its back is finely speckled whereas the worm illustrated on the CD has irregular dark blotches on the back. Leslie Newman's notes state that the background body pattern is variable, so with that in mind it is quite possible that the two worms are the same species. Leslie states that the worm is rare and known only from Australia's Great Barrier Reef. This would be quite a significant range extension.

Karolle Wall has photos of a somewhat similar worm on her website:
http://www.karollewall.com/unknown-flatworm/

Update, May 2023: Pam Madden writes: "We came across this flatworm back on April 24th on the Kohala Coast of Big Island while in a tidepool. Size guesstimate is 5mm" Pam got some excellent video of the worm in action. Photo 3 is screenshot from the video.

Update, November 2023: See photo 4. Karolle Wall writes: My friend Shawn Caley found this teensy flatworm today outside the fishpond in Nth Kihei. It looks almost identical to the one I got a very blurry photo of a few years ago. Likely the same worm as Pam Madden photographed but the patches of black are more consistent with the other one I saw.

BACK to mottled or speckled with marginal bands