ABSTRACT
The Maricola represent the smallest animals among the triclads. Size comparisons are hampered by the fact that the body dimensions of many marine triclads are known only from animals in the preserved state. Unpigmented triclads may show a variable coloration due to the various types of food present in the gut which are visible through the unpigmented epidermis. As in all Turbellaria the body of marine triclads is covered with a one-layered, cellular epidermis. In sections prepared for light microscopic, anatomical studies the epidermal basement membrane appears as a densely staining, amorphous line. In marine triclads the majority of the cyanophilous glands are distributed irregularly in the ventral parenchyma, and they occur much more rarely underneath the dorsal body surface. During gliding the cyanophilous, subepidermal glands secrete the mucous over which the animals move. The rhabdite-forming cells are situated in the parenchyma underneath the longitudinal subepidermal muscle layer.
