Por Patricia Pérez García (Department of Biology, Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of Cádiz, Spain).

Marine flatworms? What is that? Why are they so unknown? These and more questions surround the polyclads. The polyclads are free-living worms belonging to the Phylum Platyhelminthes, whose name means “many branches”. Most of them are poorly known species which live in the world’s oceans, being especially elusive. Nevertheless, there are species with bright colours too, showing us one of the most beautiful dances in the nature. The knowledge of this marine group is currently scarce, and the Iberian Peninsula is not an exception. In Spain, only 35 polyclad species have been reported and just 11 of them were reported in the south coasts.

Well, wait a moment… what about Portugal? To date, there are no reports about these animals in our coasts. This seminar is an approach to the diversity of marine flatworms from our environment, comprising Andalusia (Spain) and Algarve (Portugal) regions. Furthermore, six new species to science will be also introduced, all of them from southern Iberian Peninsula. Do you want to discover with us the world of polyclads?