Paraplanocera? C
photo: Pippa Swannell, Hawai'i Island.

This flatworm's color pattern resembles that of Pseudoceros fulgor, but its conspicuous head tentacles place it in an entirely different genus, possibly Paraplanocera. Newman and Cannon include a similar-looking worm from the Great Barrier Reef on their CD, calling it a color variant of Paraplanocera marginata. However, the worm they illustrate differs quite significantly from the normal color pattern of that species. Meanwhile, Scott Johnson illustrates what appears to be the same worm on his website, calling it Paraplanocera sp. 8. And Andrey Ryanskiy, in his book Marine Flatworms of the Indo-Pacific has multiple photos of similar-looking worms that he is calling Paraplanocera sp. 6. Although we usually follow Newman and Cannon, in this case it seems reasonable to treat this as a different and probably undescribed species.

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