Tiger+Flatworm

**Tiger Flatworm** - //Pseudoceros crozieri// **__﻿Pylum:__** Platyhelimenthes **__Class:__** Turbellaria

**__Location:__** South Carolina, Florida, and throughout the Carribean and Bermuda sea

 **__Size:__** Usually small growing up to 40mm

**__Habitat:__** Tropical waters in the shallow, intertidal, and subtidal parts of the water.

**__Living Requirements:__** They feed exclusively on orange turnicates.

**__Life Cycle:__** They tend to live 3 to 4 months in suitable conditions. They mate a lot, and usually do it through hypodermic insemination. The flatworm relies on chemical compounds to mate. That is when they can sense using their large pseudotentacles. Hypodermic isemination occurs when two individuals insert each other with their copulatory stylets. Then, sperm is transferred between the individuals bilaterally in bundles. The sperm bundles travel up the parenchyma to the oviducts and fertilize the eggs, which are then set down in egg masses. In approximatley 10 days. The Tiger Flatworm, can also asexually reproduce through fission. If an individual divides into two parts, it can regenerate itself.

__**Male and Female Differences:**__ They are hermaphrodites.

 __**Interesting Facts:**__ This flatworm has a hydrostatic skeleton. The body color of the organism can be; white, green, or even orange due to chemical compounds absorbed from eating ascidians. They feed by inserting is pharynx into the zooid of the tunicate and secretes proteases for external digestion.

Zookeeper: Erin Holbert Content, Images, and Video References: Content: [] <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Images: [|http://www.][|wildlifebronzesculpture.com] <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Video: []