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The Biology Classics: Planaria - About |
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Written By Eric Russell
Finding Flatworms
It's usually not difficult to find planarians. Shake pond weeds into a pan - flatworms will often be dislodged from their hiding places. Turn over stream rocks and look carefully at the rock surfaces. One effective method to collect flatworms - put a small pellet of canned pet food in an old nylon stocking. Secure this bag of attractant in the stream bed overnight and in the morning you may find a collection of flatworms crawling over the bag.
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 Planaria feeding |
Observe planarian behavior in an aquarium.
Hang a bit of meat, or liver against the aquarium glass in order to observe homing and feeding behavior with a hand lens. Another good way to observe planarians is with a DiscoveryScope. The worms are placed in a DiscoveryScope observation chamber or in a plastic observation bag. You can spend hours observing their structure and behavior.
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What are those eyes good for?
Transfer several planarians to a petri dish. Cover half of the dish with black paper and set the dish in bright sunlight for five minutes. Can light be used to control a planarians direction of travel? Draw a hypothetical model of how a planarians eye/brain system might be organized.
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 Planaria Eyes |
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