Species introCountry intro
Ada's planarian (Lenkunya adae)
Found in wet sclerophyll eucalyptus forest under wet timber this 150mm long (but highly compressible) soft shiny multi-striped baggy looking worm with olive, cream and brown colouring. Moisture is essential.
Taxonomy: Animalia: Platyhelminthes: Turbellaria: Seriata?
Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Geoplanidae, Geoplaninae...?
Despite their delicate nature these terrestrial flatworms are voracious predators. They feed through a muscular and reversible pharynx located in ventral side of the body. The pharynx is an extensible tube-like mouth, it bears complex muscular coat that specialized as a penetration organ for those planarians that feed on arthropods; or as a grasping for those planarians that feed on other soft bodied invertebrates such as earthworms. Pharynxes are equipped with glandular secretions that externally digest and dissolve their prey.
ID from Dr Leigh Winsor
This flatworm is shiny cream, flanked with wide olive strips with a fine black border and a fine rust/tan midline. Multiple eyespots are present at the rear. The head is pointy and tends to be darker than the rest of the body.
The adult length is 8 to 15 cm. (these animals are highly conractile)
