A land flatworm in the phylum Platyhelminthes. It is also known as New Guinea Flatworm. It is a long worm, with pointed ends and a flat body, usually gray colored on the underside and brown on the top surface. Its native home is the New Guinea Island. It was discovered by De Beauchamp in Australia though. It is mostly found in the temperate climates of the world although its natural land origin climate is that of the tropics. The flatworm is a predator. It preys on the land mollusks and arthropods. It also feeds on earthworms and slugs. It uses a chemical based method to track its prey. It mainly seems to prey on snails.
When food is exhausted, however, it feeds on other flatworms. It does not have a known predator. It is a host for rat lungworm parasitizes it. When there is an outb
...reak of snail invasion, the flatworm is introduced in the given land area to curb the epidemic. The New Guinea Flatworm is highly mobile. With a microhabitat available and moisture, it moves rapidly without human aid. It is also transmitted by people intentionally for use as a biocontrol agent in farms. Export trade can also contribute to its transmission. It attaches itself to plant barks, root bulbs, and shoots. Others get transmitted through farm machines or human transmission.
Its invasion in Florida is causing great alarm. They have previously confined to islands, and hence it’s crossing over to the mainland is a significant cause of the threat. The worm first appeared in Miami. There is worry that it could spread to other parts of the country. Since most farms in Florida get
tending from professionals, there is fear that the worm could further be spread by them from garden to garden. New Guinea Flatworm has various impacts on the biodiversity. In human beings, the worms can cause meningitis and other diseases. The worms get to people through rats. The biggest threat, however, they pose is causing the extinction of other species. Since they have no known predators, they can quickly invade any other species and wipe it out completely.
Snails are the greater risk of all other species of animals. The decline in the number of snails would lead to a disruption of the food chain, affecting birds and other creatures that eat snails. It could also cause an overgrowth of weeds consumed by snails. The worm poses a threat to native biodiversity. The New Guinea Flatworm, although it mostly eats snails, it eats other soil-dwelling invertebrates too without distinguishing them. It thus constitutes a threat to endangered species. It has been put on the list of top 100 worst invasive species and has the highest extinction record for other species such as land snails. Loss of indigenous species is a tragic depletion of the biodiversity.
With the invasion of the worm in the Florida Everglades, effective methods to curb its spread are in demand. The infected land is likely to have a lower market value for now. Treatment of the soil and the farming machines too, before movement from one farm to another is necessary. When spotted, hot water can be used to kill the worm. The land where they have infested needs quarantine and treatment to kill them.
Works Cited
- Brodie G, Barker GM, Stevens F, Fiu M.
Preliminary re-survey of the land snail fauna of Rotuma: conservation and biosecurity implications.
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