Bipaliinae

Bipaliinae
Bipalium pennsylvanicum
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Platyhelminthes
Order:	Tricladida
Family:	Geoplanidae
Subfamily:	Bipaliinae Stimpson, 1857
Genera [1]
See text

Bipaliinae is a subfamily of land planarians found mainly in Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, although some species have been introduced worldwide. ^{[2] [3]}

Description

A video of Vermiviatum covidum . A scale is shown at the end and is graduated in millimetres

The subfamily Bipaliinae is characterized by having a semilunar head that gives them the common name "hammerhead worms". The head has peripheral sensory pits on the ventral side and small peripheral eyes on the dorsal side. ^{[2] [4]}

Genera

Species in the subfamily Bipaliinae are grouped in the following genera: ^[4]

• Bipalium Stimpson, 1857
• Humbertium Ogren & Sluys, 2001
• Novibipalium Kawakatsu et al., 1998
• Umbotectum Solà & Sluys, 2023 ^[5]
• Vermiviatum Solà & Sluys, 2023 ^[5]
• Diversibipalium Kawakatsu et al., 2002

Bipaliin as invasive species

Several hammerhead flatworms have become invasive, the most famous being Bipalium kewense , now in many countries in all continents except the Antarctica. A 2022 study used occurrence records from online databases, including iNaturalist, and climatic and soil variable to model the potential distribution of five species of hammerhead flatworms, namely B. kewense , B. adventitium , B. pennsylvaanicum , B. vagum , and Diversibipalium multilineatum . It was found that the five species could invade Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Eastern Australian, a part of South America, eastern USA, western Europe and central Africa. ^[6]

References

1. Sluys, R.; Kawakatsu, M.; Riutort, M.; Baguñà, J. (2009). "A new higher classification of planarian flatworms (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida)". Journal of Natural History. 43 (29–30): 1763–1777. doi:10.1080/00222930902741669.
2. Ogren, R. E.; Kawakatsu, M. (1987). "Index to the species of the genus Bipalium (Turbellaria, Tricladida, Terricola)". The Bulletin of Fuji Women's College. Series 2. 25 (2): 79–119.
3. Álvarez-Presas, M.; Mateos, E.; Tudó, À.; Jones, H.; Riutort, M. (2014). "Diversity of introduced terrestrial flatworms in the Iberian Peninsula: A cautionary tale". PeerJ. 2: e430. doi: 10.7717/peerj.430 . PMC   4060057 . PMID   24949245.
4. Winsor, L.; Johns, P. M.; Barker, G. M. (2004). Terrestrial planarians (Platyhelminthes: Turbellaria: Tricladida: Continenticola) predaceous on terrestrial gastropods. In: Barker, G. (ed.), Natural Enemies of Terrestrial Molluscs, pp. 227-278.
5. Solà, E., Sluys, R., Riutort, M., Kawakatsu, M. (18 August 2023). "Molecular phylogenetics facilitates the first historical biogeographic analysis of the hammerhead worms (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida: Bipaliinae), with the description of twelve new species and two new genera". Zootaxa. 5335 (1): 1–77. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5335.1.1. ISSN   1175-5334.
6. Fourcade, Yoan; Winsor, Leigh; Justine, Jean‐Lou (2022-02-22). "Hammerhead worms everywhere? Modelling the invasion of bipaliin flatworms in a changing climate". Diversity and Distributions. 28 (4): 844–858. doi: 10.1111/ddi.13489 . ISSN   1366-9516.