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Description
I keep approximately fifty planaria as pets. I do mean pets; I do not experiment on them or use them for any other pragmatic purpose. My planaria culture is comprised of three species: Dugesia tigrina, Dugesia dorotocephala, and a single black planaria that might be Curtisia foremanii. I jokingly named the black one Minorita.
These planaria are all quite small (D. dorotocephala is the largest at a length of one inch) and thus difficult to photograph. These are two of the sharpest, most detailed pictures I could get with my digital camera's macro setting. The larger planaria in the photos are D. dorotocephala while the smaller, speckled ones are D. tigrina. Minorita, unfortunately, has such uniform dark coloration that it does not show up well in photos at all.

Update: I no longer have D. tigrina; there was an abrupt drop in their numbers for reasons unknown and the few remaining individuals were eventually eaten and replaced by D. dorotocephala. I'll wait until next spring, when the Biodiversity class will order live planaria for a lab, and ask the professor about acquiring the planaria afterward.
Minorita is still doing fine. I actually had a dream where Minorita multiplied to create at least four black planaria, but Minorita has never once divided in reality; I suspect this species of black planarian reproduces only sexually.

Description
I keep approximately fifty planaria as pets. I do mean pets; I do not experiment on them or use them for any other pragmatic purpose. My planaria culture is comprised of three species: Dugesia tigrina, Dugesia dorotocephala, and a single black planaria that might be Curtisia foremanii. I jokingly named the black one Minorita.
These planaria are all quite small (D. dorotocephala is the largest at a length of one inch) and thus difficult to photograph. These are two of the sharpest, most detailed pictures I could get with my digital camera's macro setting. The larger planaria in the photos are D. dorotocephala while the smaller, speckled ones are D. tigrina. Minorita, unfortunately, has such uniform dark coloration that it does not show up well in photos at all.

Update: I no longer have D. tigrina; there was an abrupt drop in their numbers for reasons unknown and the few remaining individuals were eventually eaten and replaced by D. dorotocephala. I'll wait until next spring, when the Biodiversity class will order live planaria for a lab, and ask the professor about acquiring the planaria afterward.
Minorita is still doing fine. I actually had a dream where Minorita multiplied to create at least four black planaria, but Minorita has never once divided in reality; I suspect this species of black planarian reproduces only sexually.