Persian Carpet Flatworm

The Persian carpet flatworm is a brightly patterned marine flatworm of Indo-Pacific coral reefs, from Indonesia and Malaysia to Australia, the Philippines, and Micronesia, growing to about 8 to 10 centimeters. Its dark brown to black body is crossed with pink lines and studded with thousands of tightly packed yellow spots, edged with ruffled margins and a pair of small sensory pseudotentacles at the front. It swims by undulating its flattened body and feeds on sea squirts and small crustaceans on coral rubble and reef ledges, and as a hermaphrodite it mates through a competitive behavior called penis fencing, in which two individuals try to inseminate each other while avoiding being inseminated themselves.