The research team was formed by French scientists from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, Drexel University and North Carolina State University in United StatesJames Cook University w Australia and a researcher associated with a Polish university – Dr. hab. Romain Gastineau, a specialist in DNA sequencing from the Institute of Marine and Environmental Sciences of the University of Szczecin.
– Nobody was interested in this type of animal for over 100 years, except for a few strict specialists in invertebrates. Now there is a wide interest, also from people outside the scientific community, because they are invasive. Thanks to this, research on these flatworms has developed. And thanks to this we discover new species, for example – Dr. Gastineau said on Tuesday.
These animals, as the researcher pointed out, are invasive in Europe, America and on some remote islands such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion, Tahiti. – And in some of these places they are completely uncontrolled because they do not have their natural enemies (predators – ed.) there – added the scientist.
Amaga pseudobama. A new species in the USA
Most of them come from Asia Southeast, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia or Australia, New Zealandand even from Papua New Guinea.
As it turns out, they have a major impact on soil invertebratessuch as earthworms.
– The problem with them is that they are predators of soil invertebrates and eat mainly earthworms. And earthworms already have problems because of chemicals, for example. In some places, like England and Scotland, it's quite a serious problem, with 20 percent fewer earthworms due to this – the researcher noted.
Flatwormsalso called flatwormsare invertebrates with a long, flattened body. Most flatworms are internal parasites of animals, including humansThe most famous flatworms are tapeworms – they can reach a length of up to several dozen meters. Flatworms that are not parasites (e.g. planarians – ed.) live mainly in the aquatic environment.
New Species of Worm: Amaga Pseudobama Conquers the US
New terrestrial species first spotted in North Carolina in 2020., is a brown flatworm a few centimeters long. Its special feature is that it closely resembles Obama is in trouble, a predatory species native to Brazil and Argentina, who attacked a large part of Europedevouring small snails, earthworms that loosen the soil, and other small animals.
The new worm has been named Pseudo-Bama Threatens in reference to this similarity. Contrary to appearances the name has nothing to do with Barack Obama – in the South American Tupi language, the word “oba” means “leaf” and “ma” means “animal”, which refers to the shape of the flatworm's body.
When the first photos of the worm appeared, scientists assumed it was Obama nungara. It was only after molecular testing, delayed due to the 2020 lockdowns, that it became clear that This species is very different from Obama nungara.
The researchers then performed a detailed morphological analysis and molecular study, including the description of the complete mitochondrial genome, and described a species found in the United States under the name Amaga pseudobamato indicate his resemblance to Obama nungara. Like Obama nungara, Amaga pseudobama comes from South America, however, it has never been observed or analyzed there.
The intruder has already attacked several states
Apart from North Carolina Amaga pseudobama is present on Florida and Georgiacould also attack other states. There are several other invasive flatworm species known to have been discovered in the southern United States, including Platydemus manokwari.
As scientists point out, the similarity of Amaga pseudobama to Obama nungara will be an obstacle to understanding the distribution of the species based on data provided by volunteers cooperating with professional researchers (citizen science – ed.). Such cooperation is largely based on sending photos of encountered specimens – in this case It is impossible to distinguish between the two species based on the photo.
Participants in the team's work Dr. Romain Gastineau is a French scientist who works daily in Institute of Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of SzczecinHe mainly conducts genomic research on microalgae and deals with the sequencing of mitochondrial genomes of invertebrates, in particular invasive terrestrial flatworms.
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