The United States appears to beryllium playing big to a caller wormy invader. In a caller survey this week, scientists study connected the find of a never-before-seen taxon of flatworm surviving successful North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and perchance different parts of the U.S. The predatory worm apt originated from South America and intimately resembles different invasive species, which volition hamper efforts to way its beingness successful the U.S., the researchers say.
The caller worm—named Amaga pseudobama—is a benignant of terrestrial, oregon land, flatworm. These worms thin to natively unrecorded successful tropical environments person to the equator, making the find of this taxon successful the U.S. some absorbing and perchance concerning. Non-native, oregon invasive, taxon tin often propulsion disconnected the equilibrium of an ecosystem by outcompeting autochthonal animals successful the aforesaid niche oregon by consuming precious resources. At this point, though, overmuch astir the recently discovered worms remains unknown.
“It has not been observed successful the chaotic oregon autochthonal habitats, truthful we don’t cognize overmuch astir however it interacts with its environment. We tin infer from what we cognize astir related species, but we don’t cognize precisely what it preys on, however rapidly it reproduces, and truthful on,” said Matt Bertone, a researcher from North Carolina State University, successful a statement from the university.
Researchers from France, Australia, Poland, and the U.S. each played a portion successful unraveling the individuality of the enigma worm. In 2020, Bertone was sent samples from a commercialized works nursery that had recovered specimens of the worm successful immoderate of their flowerpots. Based connected photographs, the flatworm experts that Bertone consulted initially identified the worm arsenic Obama nungara, a taxon of onshore flatworm from South America that has begun to wide invade parts of Europe successful caller years (“Obama” is simply a notation to the worms’ assemblage signifier successful the Brazilian connection Tupi, not to immoderate erstwhile satellite leaders).
But erstwhile Bertone’s colleagues successful France and Australia got to physically analyse the specimens, they realized this archetypal conjecture wasn’t right. After extensively analyzing its morphological features and its genetics, the squad yet determined that the worm was really a antecedently chartless subordinate of the genus Amaga. Given the superficial similarity to O. nungara, though, the researchers did take to allude to it successful the naming of their caller discovery. The team’s findings were published successful a insubstantial Tuesday successful the diary PeerJ, with the catchy title: “A caller taxon of alien onshore flatworm successful the Southern United States.“
While immoderate flatworms are parasites, onshore flatworms specified arsenic O. nungara and A. pseudobama are predatory, typically hunting aft assorted creepy crawlies, specified arsenic earthworms, snails, and different invertebrates. These worms thin to unrecorded successful tropical areas, and arsenic champion arsenic the researchers tin tell, A. pseudobama astir apt originates from determination successful South America. Since its accomplishment to the U.S., the worm has apt dispersed further than we presently know.
Bertone received specimens from elsewhere successful North Carolina, hundreds of miles distant from the archetypal location, portion immoderate of the worms were recovered connected plants that initially came from Georgia. Additionally, the researchers recovered specimens of A. pseudobama collected successful Florida that day backmost to 2015, suggesting that the worm has been stateside for astatine slightest a decade. It whitethorn besides perchance unrecorded successful different areas of the Southern U.S., including Texas and California, based connected photographic reports of similar-looking flatworms uploaded to the website Naturalist that the researchers found.
Studying the interaction of A. pseudobama connected its caller location is important, though its adjacent resemblance to O. nungara and different onshore flatworms volition marque that harder. The scientists anticipation that their probe provides a bully commencement to that work.
“Finding a caller flatworm taxon is not needfully a astonishment – these animals are truthful small studied that determination are apt galore taxon awaiting discovery,” Bertone said. “However, the information that we cognize truthful small astir them is 1 crushed they are worthy paying attraction to. Do they airs a hazard to autochthonal worms and, by extension, autochthonal ecosystems? We person to survey these taxon to find out. And the archetypal measurement successful that process is intelligibly identifying a taxon and naming it.”