(Oersted, 1843)

Description:
Living specimens are up to 11 mm long and 1.7 mm wide, but more commonly they measure 7 mm x 1.5 mm. This plump and robust species has two eyes set distant from the anterior margin. The head is usually bluntly triangular in shape, sometimes rounded. The dorsal surface is usually yellow-brown in colour, often with an olive tinge; the branches of the intestine that extend anteriorly to the eyes frequently show through the surface. The ventral surface is not pigmented and in mature specimens only one gonopore is present.
The penis is very large, often highly glandular, and usually bent posteriorly in the middle region; the vasa deferentia open separately into the penis bulb. The oviducts open into the glandular female genital duct (vagina and primary bursal canal), which extends posteriorly from the male atrium (F. affinis-detail); there are no bursa copulatrix or receptacular ducts.

Distribution:
This species is known from Scandinavia, Greenland and Atlantic North America.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Platyhelminthes
Class Turbellaria
Order Seriata
Suborder Tricladida
Infraorder Maricola
Family Uteriporidae
Genus Foviella
Species Foviella affinis

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Foviella affinis (Örsted, 1843) Bock, 1925

Scientific synonyms and common names

Planaria affinis Oersted, 1843
Planaria hebes Dalyell, 1853
Fovia affinis Stimpson, 1857
Planaria littoralis van Beneden, 1862
Foviella affinis Bock, 1925

Ball, I.R. & T.B. Reynoldson, 1981. British Planarians. Synopses of the British Fauna (N.S.), 19.

For further info about Foviella affinis, you can also look up this species under:

You can continue searching for Foviella affinis on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

Google | Yahoo | MSN | Wikipedia