Impurest's Guide to Animals #69 - Bipallium kewense

Another week in May, another issue of Impurest’s Guide to Animals and another missed opportunity to capture my nemesis, the feral Peacock, when it was drinking from my pond. Speaking of tricky creatures, we saw the Arboreal Salamander sneaking around the blog, as it eats its fellow salamanders. Anyway onto this weeks issue…

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Issue #69 - Bipalium kewense

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Platyhelminthes

Class – Turbellaria

Order – Tricladida

Family – Geoplanidae

Genus – Bipalium

Species – kewense

Related Species - Bipalium kewense is one of a multitude of carnivorous flatworms found across the globe (1)

Range - Considered invasive across it’s range in the United Stated, India, Europe and much of sub-Saharan Africa, it is at current unknown where Bipalium kewense originates from, although recent evidence suggests it might be somewhere in Southeast Asia

Invasion of the Hammerhead Slug

With an average length of 40cm, Bipalium kewense is a dark yellow colour, with a brown or black line running down the length of its body. The most distinctive feature however, is the anchor shaped head, earning the nickname of ‘the Hammerhead Slug’. The species moves, using a ‘creeping sole’ on its vernal side, in the same way a snail uses its muscular foot (2), although despite its more common name Bipalium kewense is a flatworm and not a mollusc. As well as the ‘creeping sole’ the vernal side also houses the ‘mouth’, which in addition to feeding, is also used in defecation to remove waste-products such as faeces.

All flatworms in the genus Bipalium are carnivorous, and specialize in feeding on earthworms. Prey is generally taken after rainfall, when it is most active, and tracked using chemical trails left in the worms wake. Prey is pinned to the ground by the flatworm, and covered in digestive enzymes that liquefy prey, before it is sucked up by the mouth. When attacked Bipalium kewense secretes a deadly neurotoxin called Tetrodotoxin, which often kills the predator, despite the amount of damage done to the flatworm.

After an attack, if cut or broken in two, members of the genus Bipalium can regenerate into two separate worms. While this method of a-sexual reproduction is often used (3), mostly because Bipalium kewense readily feed on members of their own species, the worm can reproduce sexually and is a hermaphrodite, meaning after each sexual encounter each individual involved can lay a clutch of eggs.

Nature's Most Wanted: #1 - Brown Tree Snake

The Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis) (1) is a 2m long snake native to Australia, and is invasive to the island of Guam. While it is venomous, it is not the direct threat to people that lists this snake as an invasive species, rather its insatiable appetite for the native wildlife. Since its arrival in the mid 1950s the snake has hastened the extinction of two thirds of Guam’s native mammal species, half of the native reptile species and almost three quarters of native birds. Where there was once biodiversity rich forest only half a century ago, there is now only woodland literally crawling with snakes (4).

In addition to its destruction of the native wildlife, the Brown Tree Snake interferes with economic growth, often taking poultry from farms and damage to infrastructure, when it climbs telegraph poles and wraps around power-lines causing blackouts across entire electrical grids. It is estimated that, between damage to infrastructure, loss of livelihood and increased bio-security at both airports and docks, that the Brown Tree Snake costs the government close to 500 million US dollars a year.

The threat isn't contained just to Guam however; Brown Tree Snakes are inquisitive species, with little fear of predation and readily investigate dark spaces, even going as far as climbing on ships docked at port. So far strict bio-security has prevented the species from leaving Guam, although it is readily feared that the species will escape to other islands such as the Cocos or Hawaii. So far there has been little attempt to eradicate the population of snakes on Guam, although antibiotic laden mice are being used on US Naval ships, to catch any serpents that evade port security.

Bibliography

1 - www.arkive.org

2 - Ducey, P. K.; West, L. J.; Shaw, G.; De Lisle, J. (2005). "Reproductive ecology and evolution in the invasive terrestrial planarian Bipalium adventitium across North America". Pedobiologia49 (4): 367

3 - Winsor, L. 1983. A revision of the cosmopolitan land planarian Bipalium kewense Moseley, 1878 (Turbellaria: Tricladida: Terricola). Zool. J. of the Linnean Soc. 79: 61-100.

4 - http://ftp.ma.utexas.edu/users/davis/375/LECTURES/L24/snake3.pdf

Picture References

1 - http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2008/07/27/fleurone/805a40.jpg

2 - http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/thumbs/2013/Mar/25/9d62ae90612f_sf_3.jpg

3 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Brown_tree_snake_Boiga_irregularis_2_USGS_Photograph.jpg

Wow toxic worms, and devil may care snakes, this actually turned out to be a fun issue to write. Speaking of fun we have two requests over the next fortnight from @ccraft and @cgoodness. But until then critic, comment and suggest future issues as well as making sure you check past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary

Many Thanks

Impurest Cheese

@cbishop,@laflux,@ostyo,@wildvine,@darling_luna,@samimista,@cattlebattle,@xwraith,@cgoodness,@mslola,@squares,@scorpion2501,@darthaznable,@scattered316,@bumpyboo,@knightsofdarkness2,@wolverine08,@dboyrules2011,@joshuadbr,@nighthunder,@johnjo719,@itsomething,@delphic,@dngn4774,@bruxae,@jaken7,@ccraft,@wim_garnet,@claymore1998,@ironspiderchan45,@dccomicsrule2011,@hylian,@transcendence,@rd189,@unbreakable_fs4,@quinnofthestoneage,@fuzzylittlerodent,@the_kidd,@rd189,@thetruebarryallen,@thevivas, @korrasami,@swordmasterd,@veitha, @thedandyman, @infinityball, @scavengerfist,@masterkungfu, @orpheus_knightfall and @themongoose

Who's that animal? It's Hammerhead...Slug?

Nice work. Been busy with my dissertation, so haven't had a chance to post.

Invasive Species in Australia seems to be real problem though. So its suprsing to see a species from Australia become a pest elsewhere tbh :P

Great issue, as always :P

@laflux: No problem I remember the time my dissertation sucked out of me so I understand. And yes its odd that an Australian (actually two did, the other being the brush-tailed possum) made it into the 'top 100 most invasive species on earth as of 2014' list.

@quinnofthestoneage: Cool thanks

First snails, now slugs? Meh...oh, and nice issue.

What animal will you reval for the 100th issue? Or do you even think that far ahead?

Yours truly, Frosty

@dboyrules2011: It's actually a worm, as for issue 100, well that's been decided since Issue 6

Ooooh wiggly

@impurestcheese: Oh, really? Silly me then. :p Ah, gotcha haha.

Yours truly, Frosty

ohhh creepy

~MiB

Ha, pervy worm.

@darling_luna: Yes a full 40cm or a foot and a half of wiggly

@dboyrules2011: Yep, still it does have a slug look about it

@madeinbangladesh: Yep it is creepy, however this worm seems to be more tolerated than previous worm issues

@ostyo: How is it pervy?

@orpheus_knightfall: Yeah most of the carnivores I cover have cannibalistic tendencies

@impurestcheese: *is jealous, is not very wiggly*

@darling_luna: Ah bless, what about the Brown Tree Snake? That's so wiggly it infiltrated a US Aircraft Carrier in Australia and jumped ship in Guam without anyone knowing

@orpheus_knightfall: No that's something I say on a regular basis on this site. By the goddess my life has got weird

@impurestcheese: Aww daring snake wants to fly !

Remember seeing a video about it with some guy biking in the jungle who picked it up while it was eating another worm

interesting..........

@impurestcheese: It's animal #69! Lolz!

@darling_luna: Yeah wouldn't call it darling though, not unless you want snake related blackouts

@cgoodness: Seen something similar too

@masterkungfu: Yep, with a side dish of gross

@ostyo:Ah yet its an animal that would rather reproduce by itself...silly flatworm

@impurestcheese: Daring, but I get you, I want no harm to come to snakes <3

"As well as the ‘creeping sole’ the vernal side also houses the ‘mouth’, which in addition to feeding, is also used in defecation to remove waste-products such as faeces."

I don't know how to process this.

Good thing that flatworm isn't parasitic *goosebumps*

That brown tree snake is one notorious jack@ss, poor ecosystem. Great post!

@scavengerfist: Oh we have an interesting pair of parasites coming up soon, and yes the Brown Tree Snake is just what you labelled it as

@ms-lola: That flatworms are disgusting

@darling_luna:Yeah it would be...shocking

Interesting. Any info on the current range within the US? I've never heard of hammerhead slugs here in the mid-Atlantic. (Not that I spend too much time thinking about slugs)

@wim_garnet: They are flatworms not slugs.

They live outside in the costal Southern States all the way up to South Carolina and Northern California, and can be found in greenhouses in the rest of the continental USA.

@impurestcheese: That explains it. I've never lived south of central North Carolina. Cool info - thanks!

@impurestcheese: it looks like it would make good fishing bait!!!

@rd189: Only if you like eating toxic fish. The poison in the worms blood kills anything that eats it

@wim_garnet:No Problem

Do not underestimate the shapes slugs come in, I know that now.

@scattered316: Yeah except this is a worm not a slug

Hey cheese. Have you done anything about raccoons? If you haven't made any can I make it? It's like a tribute to your holy blogs. :-D

@rocketraccoonthingy: Well we did have an issue on Ring Tailed Coati where raccoons and raccoon dogs were discussed in the comments - Here's the link

@impurestcheese: And this is what I get for skimming...

@scattered316: True dat

@impurestcheese: I've been meaning to ask: you know how online dictionaries have a pronunciation button? Is there a site that has those for animal genus types? Because tongue twisterrrr. :}

@ficopedia: Not really, having a basic knowledge of Latin helps. If all else fails, spit the word up into syllables, from there you can cover most names you come across

@impurestcheese: Cool.

Neat!

@theik2: Yeah in a disgusting way

(Somebody has obviously been reading the index attached to these blogs) :-)

@impurestcheese: You're very perceptive as well as all knowing.