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Five species of invasive hammerhead worms — four in the genus Bipalium and one in Diversibipalium — are established in North America, said Bruce Snyder, an associate professor of biology at ...
There’s an invasive species of worm making itself known in Texas once again—the hammerhead flatworm. These worms are toxic, hard to kill, and dangerous to native critters like earthworms, but ...
Bipalium species are predatory.Some species prey on earthworms, while others may also feed on mollusks. [10] [11] These flatworms can track their prey. [12]When captured, earthworms begin to react to the attack, but the flatworm uses the muscles in its body, as well as sticky secretions, to attach itself to the earthworm to prevent escape.
The invasive hammerhead worm species secretes a toxin also found in puffer fish that harm humans or pets, so be careful when killing hammerhead worms. If you see an invasive hammerhead worm, don't ...
Several hammerhead flatworms have become invasive, the most famous being Bipalium kewense, now in many countries in all continents except the Antarctica.A 2022 study used occurrence records from online databases, including iNaturalist, and climatic and soil variable to model the potential distribution of five species of hammerhead flatworms, namely B. kewense, B. adventitium, B ...
Bipalium kewense, also known as the shovel-headed garden worm, is a species of large predatory land planarian with a cosmopolitan distribution. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It is sometimes referred to as a "hammerhead flatworm" due to its half-moon-shaped head, but this name is also used to refer to other species in the subfamily Bipaliinae .
Hammerhead worms, also called shovel-headed garden worms, release toxins that can irritate skin, and if eaten, can make people and pets sick. The toxins make it unpleasant to predators.
In North America, where B. adventitium is an introduced species, most earthworms do not immediately recognize the flatworm as a predator. They try to escape only after being pierced by the planarian's everted pharynx, which is one of the reasons of B. adventitium' s success in invading this continent.