Caenoplana coerulea

Caenoplana coerulea, known as the blue planarian or blue garden flatworm is a species of land planarian.

Blue planarian
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Platyhelminthes
Order:	Tricladida
Family:	Geoplanidae
Genus:	Caenoplana
Species:	C. coerulea
Binomial name
Caenoplana coerulea Moseley, 1877

Description

This is a long narrow flatworm, which is shiny black or dark brown on the upper surface, and mid-blue underneath (hence the specific epithet and the common name of "blue planarian".) There is a narrow creamy/fawn or yellow coloured longitudinal stripe running down the center of the upper surface. Multiple eyespots are present. The head on some individuals has a pinkish appearance. The adult length is 6 to 12 cm.

Range

This flatworm is native to Eastern Australia, however it has been accidentally introduced to New Zealand,^[1] the Balearic Islands,^[2] Argentina,^[3] Canary Islands,^[4] France,^[5] U.K (Portsmouth) and the USA (including California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, South Carolina and Iowa).^[6]

Habitat

It is found in moist forest areas, and during drier periods it shelters under rocks, rotting logs and in leaf litter. It is often seen after periods of heavy rain.

Life habits

This planarian is a predator of a variety of invertebrates on the forest floor. It is known to feed on several arthropod groups, such as woodlice, millipedes and earwigs, as well as on land snails.^[3]

Molecular characterisation

The complete mitogenome of Caenoplana coerulea is 18,621 bp in length.^[7] Its main characteristic is a cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 gene of unusual length, with a cox2 encoded protein 505 aa in length (compared to about 250 aa in other geoplanids); this characteristic of a very long cox2 is also found in other members of the subfamily Rhynchodeminae, to which Caenoplana coerulea belongs.^[7]

Gallery

Showing color variation and more detail

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  Caenoplana coerulea
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  Caenoplana coerulea
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  Caenoplana coerulea
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  Caenoplana coerulea upturned

References

1. Winsor, Leigh (September 1998). "The Australian terrestrial flatworm fauna (Tricladida: Terricola)". Pedobiologia. 42 (5–6): 457–463. Bibcode:1998Pedob..42..457W. doi:10.1016/S0031-4056(24)00467-0.
2. Breugelmans, Karin; Quintana Cardona, Josep; Artois, Tom; Jordaens, Kurt; Backeljau, Thierry (2012). "First report of the exotic blue land planarian, Caenoplana coerulea (Platyhelminthes, Geoplanidae), on Menorca (Balearic Islands, Spain)". ZooKeys (199): 91–105. Bibcode:2012ZooK..199...91B. doi:10.3897/zookeys.199.3215. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 3368283. PMID 22711997.
3. Luis-Negrete, Lisandro; Brusa, Francissco; Winsor, Leigh (2011). "La planaria terrestre azul Caenoplana coerulea, un invasor en Argentina". Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad. 82: 287–291. doi:10.22201/ib.20078706e.2011.1.450. hdl:11336/105440.
4. Suárez, Daniel; Martín, Sonia; Naranjo, Manuel (2018). "First report of the invasive alien species Caenoplana coerulea Moseley, 1877 (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Geoplanidae) in the subterranean environment of the Canary Islands". Subterranean Biology. 26: 67–74. doi:10.3897/subtbiol.26.25921. hdl:10261/197485. ISSN 1314-2615.
5. Justine, Jean-Lou; Thévenot, Jessica; Winsor, Leigh (2014). "Les sept plathelminthes invasifs introduits en France". Phytoma (in French). 674: 28–32. doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.1447202.
6. Ogren, R. E. 2001. The Blue Planarian: A New Locality
7. Gastineau, Romain; Lemieux, Claude; Turmel, Monique; Otis, Christian; Boyle, Brian; Coulis, Mathieu; Gouraud, Clément; Boag, Brian; Murchie, Archie K.; Winsor, Leigh; Justine, Jean-Lou (2024-04-03). "The invasive land flatworm Arthurdendyus triangulatus has repeated sequences in the mitogenome, extra-long cox2 gene and paralogous nuclear rRNA clusters". Scientific Reports. 14 (1): 7840. Bibcode:2024NatSR..14.7840G. doi:10.1038/s41598-024-58600-y. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 10991399. PMID 38570596.

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