Giant worms chez moi! Hammerhead flatworms (Platyhelminthes, Geoplanidae, Bipalium spp., Diversibipalium spp.) in metropolitan France and overseas French territories

Abstract

BackgroundSpecies of the genera Bipalium and Diversibipalium, or bipaliines, are giants among land planarians (family Geoplanidae), reaching length of 1 m; they are also easily distinguished from other land flatworms by the characteristic hammer shape of their head. Bipaliines, which have their origin in warm parts of Asia, are invasive species, now widespread worldwide. However, the scientific literature is very scarce about the widespread repartition of these species, and their invasion in European countries has not been studied.MethodsIn this paper, on the basis of a four year survey based on citizen science, which yielded observations from 1999 to 2017 and a total of 111 records, we provide information about the five species present in Metropolitan France and French overseas territories. We also investigated the molecular variability of cytochrome-oxidase 1 (COI) sequences of specimens.ResultsThree species are reported from Metropolitan France: Bipalium kewense, Diversibipalium multilineatum, and an unnamed Diversibipalium ‘black’ species. We also report the presence of B. kewense from overseas territories, such as French Polynesia (Oceania), French Guiana (South America), the Caribbean French islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, and Montserrat (Central America), and La Réunion island (off South-East Africa). For B. vagum, observations include French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Montserrat, La Réunion, and Florida (USA). A probable new species, Diversibipalium sp. ‘blue,’ is reported from Mayotte Island (off South–East Africa). B. kewense, B. vagum and D. multilineatum each showed 0% variability in their COI sequences, whatever their origin, suggesting that the specimens are clonal, and that sexual reproduction is probably absent. COI barcoding was efficient in identifying species, with differences over 10% between species; this suggests that barcoding can be used in the future for identifying these invasive species. In Metropolitan south–west France, a small area located in the Department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques was found to be a hot-spot of bipaliine biodiversity and abundance for more than 20 years, probably because of the local mild weather.DiscussionThe present findings strongly suggest that the species present in Metropolitan France and overseas territories should be considered invasive alien species. Our numerous records in the open in Metropolitan France raise questions: as scientists, we were amazed that these long and brightly coloured worms could escape the attention of scientists and authorities in a European developed country for such a long time; improved awareness about land planarians is certainly necessary.

Non-indigenous terrestrial flatworms in Torrevieja (Alicante): presence of Bipalium cf. kewense Mosely, 1878 (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Geoplanidae)

“…Pujol & N. Ubero-Pascal Anales de Biología 41, 2019 Cataluña, aunque estudios recientes ponen de manifiesto el aumento tanto del número de especies, como de sus áreas de distribución (Álvarez-Presas et al 2014, Sánchez-García 2014. Atendiendo a su potencial vía de introducción, la importación y comercio de plantas exóticas, las observaciones de planarias terrestres alóctonas de la península ibérica están principalmente relacionadas con ambientes artificiales, como jardines y viveros de plantas, ya que, debido a sus requerimientos ambientales, especialmente de humedad, y el clima de los lugares en los que han sido citadas, la probabilidad de sobrevivir o reproducirse en ambientes naturales es baja (Álvarez-Presas et al 2014, Sánchez-García 2014, Justine et al 2018 seminaturales, como zonas de restauración ambiental conectadas a ambientes naturales y agrícolas. Por esta razón, algunos autores ya están alertando del potencial impacto que estos animales tendrían sobre la fauna edáfica autóctona, especialmente lombrices de tierra, y actividades económicas como la agricultura si llegaran a adaptarse a lugares con condiciones ambientales propicias o similares a los de sus lugares de origen (Boarg et al 2010;Álvarez-Presas et al 2014, Justine et al 2014.…”

“…Latreille, 1804. Las características morfológicas y de pigmentación del espécimen objeto de este trabajo se ajustan a las dadas para la especie B. kewense por diferentes autores (Moseley 1878, Winsor 1983, Justine et al 2018, atendiendo especialmente a la forma expandida lateralmente de su extremo anterior, a la ausencia de banda oscura continua en la zona dorsal del cuello y al patrón de bandas longitudinales del cuerpo del animal (Fig. 1A).…”

First record of the invasive land flatworm Bipalium adventitium (Platyhelminthes, Geoplanidae) in Canada

“…Most species have their origin in Asia but have invaded the world. The two "giant" species Bipalium kewense Moseley, 1878 and Diversibipalium multilineatum (Makino & Shirasawa, 1983), which can be as long as 30 cm, have been reported in many locations worldwide (Justine et al, 2018b;Mazza et al, 2016;Morffe et al, 2016;Winsor, 1983). Bipalium adventitium Hyman, 1943, which is smaller, but still a noticeable species up to about 10 cm in length, is known only from the USA (Hyman, 1943;Kawakatsu et al, 2002); however, since bipaliines do not have their biogeographical origin in North America, the species is not a part of the native fauna.…”

“…They were then fixed in pure ethanol and a small portion of the specimen was taken for molecular analysis. Sequences were obtained using our routine protocol (Justine et al, 2018b). Briefly, genomic DNA was extracted using the QIAamp DNA Mini Kit (Qiagen).…”

“…MEGA7 (Kumar et al, 2016) was used to estimate genetic distances. A phylogenetic analysis was performed with our new sequence and from all sequences available for members of the Bipaliinae; the geographical origin of specimens was checked in publications pertaining to sequences (Álvarez-Presas et al, 2008;Justine et al, 2018b;Moon et al, 2011) For the ML tree, the best model determined by MEGA7 was the Hasegawa-Kishino-Yano model with discrete Gamma distribution (HKY+G).…”