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Thread: Giant predatory worms from Asia are invading France

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    Lightbulb Giant predatory worms from Asia are invading France



    Source: Quartz


    It’s not every day that an amateur gardener’s observations become the subject of scientific study. But one keen-eyed French naturalist named Pierre Gros has managed to alert professional entomologists to a long-ignored giant predatory worm invasion.

    In a Peer J study published on May 22, “Giant worms chez moi!” zoologist Jean-Lou Justine of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, entomologist colleagues, and Gros, outline a discovery that “highlights an unexpected blind spot of scientists and authorities facing an invasion by conspicuous large invasive animals.” About 100 citizen scientists ultimately contributed to the assessment of this alien invasion, identifying five (!) giant predatory worm species in France that grow up to 10 inches long.

    It all began back in 2013, when Gros photographed a large, never-before-seen worm in his garden. The photograph of the worm species, which is believed to have traveled from Asia via plants, eventually reached Justine’s email inbox. The zoologist told the Independent, ““I looked at it and said ‘Well, this is not possible–we don’t have this kind of animal in France.’”

    Justine dismissed the image as a prank. But Gros offered further proof that the worms were real, and real weird, taking two more photos of giant exotic hammerheads—so called because of the distinctive flat, arrow shape of their heads, which resemble hammerhead sharks. This convinced Justine to verify the existence of these strange species.

    Indeed, the worms were real. He and Gros soon embarked on a five-year assessment of the worms. “What we know now is that there are invasive flatworms almost everywhere in metropolitan France,” Justine says.




    The study relied on contributors’ worm sightings, reported “mainly by email, sometimes by telephone.” Researchers requested photographs and details about locality. In 2013, the Washington Post reports, “a group of terrorized kindergartners claimed they saw a mass of writhing snakes in their play field.” These were giant flatworms!

    The study concludes that the alien creatures appear to reproduce asexually. They prey on other, smaller earthworms, stunning them with toxins. “The planarian also produces secretions from its headplate and body that adhere it to the prey, despite often sudden violent movements of the latter during this stage of capture,” researcher note. In other words, the hammerheads produce a substance that allows them to stick to victims while killing them.




    France is not alone in facing alien worm invasions, the paper points out. In recent years, European scientists have reported invasive alien flatworms from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, and Australia—all “conspicuous animals, several centimeters in length.” But the five species of hammerhead flatworms invading France are giants, growing up to 27 centimeters.

    The giant hammerhead flatworms have also been observed in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, French Guiana, Réunion, and Mayotte. Three of these species are attributed to known binomial taxa, including Bipalium kewense, B. vagum, and Diversibipalium multilineatum. Two are utterly alien to the stunned scientists and are as yet unnamed.

    Justine now believes that the hammerheads been living in France for about 20 years. “I am still amazed,” he admits to the Independent. “I don’t understand how this is possible.”


    Source: Quartz
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    Well, they are just long escargot...the French can eat their way out of this one...

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    Pierre Grylls style?

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    Quote Originally posted by Dumpster Diver View Post
    Well, they are just long escargot...the French can eat their way out of this one...
    Not quite. An escargot is a snail, while these are worms.

    That said, worms are normally edible — as any survivalist will be able to tell you — but considering that this particular variety carries neurotoxins within it, I wouldn't advise eating them.
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    Thought a worm was just a homeless snail.


    Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_LIz7kTok

    Wouldn't wanna eat this snail neither.

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    Quote Originally posted by enjoy being View Post
    Thought a worm was just a homeless snail.
    Hehe, most certainly not.

    Snails without a shell are called slugs, but both the variety with a shell and the one without are gastropods, which itself is a category of animals belonging to the larger clave of mollusks. Worms on the other hand are a species completely unrelated to mollusks.

    Comparing snails and slugs to worms would be analogous to comparing eels to sea snakes, insects to spiders, salamanders to lizards, or cetaceans to fish.

    Quote Originally posted by enjoy being View Post

    Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_LIz7kTok

    Wouldn't wanna eat this snail neither.

    I wouldn't want to eat any snail — or any worm, for that matter. One of my exes loved them, though, and in garlic butter, no less.
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    Looks a bit like humanity's plight.

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    I knew that one would get you going.

    And the zombie snails.

    Elen, there is a Professor who has a theory that toxoplasmosis has a parasitic mind control effect on humans, to make humans crazy cat people. Make them into their slaves.

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    Quote Originally posted by enjoy being View Post
    I knew that one would get you going.

    And the zombie snails.

    Elen, there is a Professor who has a theory that toxoplasmosis has a parasitic mind control effect on humans, to make humans crazy cat people. Make them into their slaves.
    Yeah I saw the interview on Jo Rogan...but humanity MUST be infected by a parasitic force to make us all into zombies, hey?

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    Sometimes it seems like it. Often actually when I hear others and even myself complaining about 'them', I do in fact think of how it sounds like it could be that neurological shadowy being. A bit like Gollum talking in the 3rd person.

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    Quote Originally posted by enjoy being View Post
    Sometimes it seems like it. Often actually when I hear others and even myself complaining about 'them', I do in fact think of how it sounds like it could be that neurological shadowy being. A bit like Gollum talking in the 3rd person.
    Gollum didn't speak in third person about himself — he spoke in first person plural, because he had multiple-personality disorder. Kings and queens tend to do that too, but they have another kind of disorder.
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    ....okay that's right, whichever.

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    Invasive worms, zombie slugs. Yikes.

    They're giant flatworms. Planarian. We had planaria in biology class. They were small grey flatworms you looked at through a microscope. They would eat egg yolk. You could cut them in half and they'd regrow from the head half.

    I've never heard of giant ones.

    Being plagued with invasive plants and bugs here, I feel like it's a kind of brutal natural irony. We (my forebears) invaded, cut down the old growth, killed of most of the natives...and now it's coming back around in the form of invasive species and diseases. (and govt 'intelligences')

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    Quote Originally posted by Dreamtimer View Post
    Being plagued with invasive plants and bugs here, I feel like it's a kind of brutal natural irony. We (my forebears) invaded, cut down the old growth, killed of most of the natives...and now it's coming back around in the form of invasive species and diseases. (and govt 'intelligences')
    My brother works for a not-for-profit organization, which in turn works for the province. His job is to track and kill invasive species all over the province. For most part, it revolves around musk rats and wild geese. Musk rats in particular are considered a threat because they burrow in dikes, and considering that large parts of the Flanders lie below sea level, that's not a very healthy situation. It has in the past already led to dike breaches and flooding.

    But we are indeed seeing lots of invasive species here too nowadays, as well as the return of a couple of species that had previously existed here and that had all disappeared, such as (still only recently) wolves — one of which was accidentally killed by a car — and these days also a lynx.

    Man-made or not, climate change is real, and it, together with the expansion of cities and industry zones, is driving animals into migration. Some species have also been knowingly imported by man for the hunt, such as musk rats and beavers — their fur used to be quite popular — but musk rats breed like bunnies and now there are too many of them.
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    There was a guy that was recently killed by a mountain lion/puma/cougar here in the U.S. He and a friend were mountain biking when they ran into it. Poor guy tried to run ... mistake, big mistake...hell, my cat will try to bring me down if I turn my back on it... the other guy just got chewed up but they ended up tracking the mountain lion and 'euthanized' it...read shot it dead. A lot of people were totally freaked out about this...I think it was maybe the first time ever that a death resulted...apparently the creature was about 30 pounds underweight.

    Brings back an old memory...I remember hearing a report on the radio news that there was a supposed sighting of a mountain lion. I lived in Kansas and this report might have come from Colorado for all I know... I was just a little little guy, I immediately went into survival mode...hyper-alert and ready for the damn thing...
    Last edited by Emil El Zapato, 24th May 2018 at 15:25.
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