Shovel-headed garden worm

Bipalium kewense · The shovel-headed garden worm is a large predatory land flatworm, thought to be native to Southeast Asia but now found worldwide.

Shovel-headed garden worm
Photo: Jean-Lou Justine​, Leigh Winsor, Delphine Gey, Pierre Gros, and Jessica Thévenot, CC BY-SA 4.0
Shovel-headed garden worm
Photo: Loarie, CC0
Shovel-headed garden worm
Photo: Don Loarie, CC BY 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumPlatyhelminthes
ClassRhabditophora
OrderTricladida
FamilyGeoplanidae
GenusBipalium
SpeciesBipalium kewense

Where it lives

Native to Southeast Asia; now in greenhouses and yards worldwide.

Fun facts

  • This flatworm can be a very long creature, with preserved specimens reaching up to 20 centimetres and living ones possibly longer.
  • It has been reported on every continent except Antarctica, probably spread by the plant trade, since it is often found in plant pots.
  • It hunts earthworms by holding them still, then pushing its throat out onto the earthworm's body to begin digesting it.
  • It is one of the few land invertebrates known to make tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin that causes paralysis.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).