Giant invasive worms have been living quietly in France for 20 years

Creepy killer worms have taken over France

Creepy killer worms have taken over France

The infestation has gone underreported for nearly two decades and poses a threat to fauna, according to researchers.

"They (the hammerhead flatworms) weren't hidden, they were very visible".

Invasive flatworms up to 40 centimeters long have been found in France, but it seems they've been around for some time, The Washington Post reports.

The worms are part of a group of predatory species known as hammerhead flatworms, which grow to over a foot long. Though the worms were first spotted decades ago, this is the first study to investigate the extent of their invasion and to question what it might mean for the ecosystems that they overrun. When bits of them are amputated, these bits can regrow into complete worms - even from snipped-off fragments that represent 1/300th of the worm's body.

Flat earthworms (Plathelminthes), which travel from continent to continent with the help of plants are normally no more than 5 centimeters long; there exist, however, big T-headed worms, so-called Bipalium worms (Bipalium et Diversibipalium), frequently referred to as horror movie creatures. A total of 111 observations of the hammerhead flatworms were made between 1999 and 2017 alone, many of which were made in the south of France where conditions were both humid and temperate enough for the exotic worms to survive.

Flatworms can be introduced to foreign habitats as soil stowaways in global plant shipments, the scientists reported in the new study. Scientists, shocked by recent photographs of hammerhead flatworms crawling around French gardens, put out a public call for additional sightings.

Throughout the course of the study, the team identified five species of alien worms in France and French overseas territories.

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One of the species, found on Mayotte, a French island off the African East Coast, is named "blue" due to its glittery turquoise appearance.

Biologists are warning about an invasion of giant predatory worms in French territories across four continents.

One reason the giant flatworm species reported in the study are such successful invaders is that they reproduce asexually, which enables a single individual to produce many offspring immediately, Justine told Live Science.

"Another reason is the absence of predators", Justine told LiveScience via email. They prey on earthworms in the soil and produce a potent cocktail of chemicals to immobilize their prey.

Because hammerhead worms hunt and eat earthworms, they can potentially disrupt native biodiversity and ecological balance.

The findings were published online today (May 22) in the journal PeerJ.

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