The flatworm could have a negative impact on native snail populations in North Carolina, but it’s difficult to tell. The loss of local snails and slugs could leave local predators with less to eat and decrease soil quality. Most land snails also eat leaf litter, breaking it down to release nutrients in soil that plants can use. Snails and slugs can be important food sources for birds and other predators. When it traveled to Hawaii, the flatworm slashed the ranks of native Hawaiian tree snails in Oahu.
Once in a new environment, the flatworm can dine on native species, reducing their populations. The New Guinea flatworm is a predator “of almost everything,” said Justine, and feasts on an invertebrate diet including earthworms, slugs and snails. Both were confirmed by Leigh Winsor, an international expert on flatworm identification and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at James Cook University in Australia. Since then, sightings have popped up all over Florida on the citizen science site, iNaturalist.Īs of now, there are two iNaturalist reports of the New Guinea flatworm in North Carolina: one near Durham in 2018, and the other near Wilmington in 2021. The flatworm was first spotted in the United States in Florida in 2012. “It can be moved by anything from strict commerce to individuals bringing things from state to state.” “These worms are very easily moved accidentally,” Bertone said. Its easily transportable nature makes it likely to crop up in new areas. It has a black body with a pale stripe down its back, looking a bit “like a little cartoon,” according to North Carolina State University entomologist Matt Bertone. The New Guinea flatworm is about two inches long.
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