Bat surveys all night last week, bat surveys all this week, looks like I truly am crespuclular at the moment. That’s in sharp contrast to the diurnal Spanish Fly which had managed to infiltrate history in the worst way possible. This week we have a compressed issue suggested by @gunmetalgrey. Hope you guys enjoy!!

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Issue #178 - Bedford’s Worm

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Platyhelminthes

Class – Tuberellaria

Order – Polycladida

Family - Pseudocerotidae

Genus – Pseudobiceros

Species – bedfordi

Related Species - Bedford’s Worm is one of the eighteen members of the genus Pseudobiceros

Range - Bedford’s Worm is found throughout coastal waters around Indonesia and Northern Australia

Breed by the Sword

Bedford’s Worm is a large brown marine flatworm that grows to a length of 10cm. The body of this worm has a number of yellow and pink spots across its flanks and back. It is this colouration and patterning that gives the species the alternate colloquial name of the Persian Carpet Worm. Respiration occurs across the entire surface of the animal through passive diffusion, while food is taken through a mouth in the centre of the worm’s belly. Like the majority of the marine flatworms, Bedford’s Flatworm actively swims by undulating its body when looking for food or reproductive partners.

Bedford’s Worm is a carnivore, and activlly hunts for prey such as small fish and other marine worms which are sucked into the mouth before being ground into easily digestible pieces. Any inedible waste is removed via the mouth, since, like all other flatworms, the Bedford’s Worm lacks an anus. It is possible that Bedford’s Worm defends itself from predators such as larger fish using Tetrodotoxin like its terrestrial relatives, although there is currently little evidence that this occurs (2).

The Bedford’s Worm, like most flatworms are hermaphrodites, being simultaneously male and female at the same time. Despite this individuals can’t breed with themselves, and instead seek out others, before engaging them in a fencing duel using, one of its two, penisues. The fight only ends when one of the animals is touched on the body, becoming the female and retreating (3). After a brief period, the worm lays its eggs in a crevice and leaves them to hatch, with the larvae briefly staying in the plankton until they mature into adult flatworms.

Nature’s Most Wanted #11 - Snail Eating Flatworm

The Snail Eating Flatworm (Platydemus manokwari) is a medium sized terrestrial flatworm originally native to Indonesia, and invasive across much of the Pacific ranging from Japan and Australia in the west to the isles of Hawaii in the east. While some of these introduction are likely accidental, the vast majority are intentional to control the Giant African Land Snail (Achatina fulica) after it became invasive itself, and the previous biological control option the Rosy Wolf Snail (Euglandina rosea) was deemed inadequate to handle it, preferring to prey on native snail species rather than prey many times its own size (4).

The combination of these three species, has spelt disaster for many native snail species, especially in Hawaii where there are no native invertebrate snail predators. Between competition for food with the Giant African Land Snail, and the predatory attentions of the other two species, the diversity of Hawaii’s native tree snails has declined from forty species to about thirty five over the last 150 years, with all the remaining species endangered due to interactions with invasive species.

Due to its robust nature, and small size, the Snail Eating Flatworm is a far more difficult species to eradicate than both the Giant African Land Snail and the Rosy Wolf Snail. The only reliable method of catching the species is to take soil samples, examine them, and then kill the worms and their eggs by heating the soil in water to a temperature of forty five degrees or more. Due to the cost and time intensive nature of this procedure, and the presence of a multitude of invasive species on islands throughout the Pacific, little is being done to eradicate the Snail Eating Flatworm in its invasive range save for keeping native snails quarantined away from potential entry routes used by predators.

Bibliography

1 - www.arkive.org

2 - https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/killer-flatworms-hunt-poison

3 - http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-flatworms

4 - http://www.iucngisd.org/gisd/speciesname/Platydemus+manokwari

Picture References

1 - http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/uw-misc/flatworm/Pseudobiceros-bedfordi-jj-7825-111113.jpg

2 - http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1791/1913/1024/IMG_7221.jpg

3 - https://dfzljdn9uc3pi.cloudfront.net/2014/297/1/fig-1-2x.jpg

4 - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cudOWbdwawE/UuXRmSmvCWI/AAAAAAAAC8k/EjLgbumOjVw/s1600/Euglandina_rosea_with_Achatina_fulica-16.jpg

Penis Jousting! Killer Flatworms! This issue is as cool as the next issue is heavy. And at a quarter of a ton, it’s pretty dam heavy. Until then though make sure to critic, comment and suggest future issues as well as making sure you check out past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary.

Many Thanks

Impurest Cheese

Want more IGTA? For more flatworm fun, click here to check out the beastly ‘Hammerhead Slug’ (yes I know it’s an odd name). Or for the most diabolical of worms, click here to see the Horsehair Worm, and animal that makes its victims commit suicide.