''Schmidtea polychroa'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of freshwater flatworm, a

dugesiid Dugesiidae is a family of freshwater planarians distributed worldwide (except Antarctica). The type genus is ''Dugesia ''Dugesia'' (pronounced, /duˈd͡ʒiʒ(i)ə/) is a genus of dugesiid triclads that contains some common representatives ...

triclad A planarian is one of the many flatworms of the traditional class Turbellaria. It usually describes free-living flatworms of the order Tricladida (triclads), although this common name is also used for a wide number of free-living platyhelmint ...

that inhabits the shallow mesotrophic or

eutrophic Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytoplank ...

waters of rivers and lakes of Europe. It is also present in North America, where it has been introduced at least in the

Saint Lawrence river The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

system. Kenk, R. (1989). Revised list of the North American freshwater Planarians (Platyhelminthes. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 476, 1-10. It is an animal with a limited dispersion capability.

Diet

Individuals of this species search for food actively; they feed mainly on small invertebrates. They prey preferably on

oligochaetes Oligochaeta () is a subclass of animals in the phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, including all of the various earthworms. Specifically, oligochaetes comprise the terrestrial megadrile earthw ...

, and also on gastropods.

Reproduction

They are

hermaphroditic In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have se ...

. ''Schmidtea polychroa'' produces cocoons in water temperatures between 10 and 23 °C.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1995705 Dugesiidae