![]() Some think the worm is spreading, and because of climate change and other factors, that’s possible, Murphy said. ![]() Now, he’s studied them more, and with a scientist’s perspective. Murphy, an entomologist by training who spent a lot of his childhood flipping over rocks, recalled finding shovel-heads years ago in his parents’ garden. They’re also unusual in that they produce a neurotoxin that scientists believe may help the shovel-heads subdue earthworms and other prey. ![]() Native to Asia, the shovel-head is now found around the world.īut because of their oddly shaped heads, their size (they can grow nearly a foot long) and distinctive stripes, they make an impression. Like many other invasive species, it likely came here in imported plant material. The worms were first documented in England’s Kew Gardens - thus the scientific name - in the 1800s, and were found in the United States early in the 20th century, he said. Unlike the lizard, the fish and the big Joro spider, however, the shovel-head is not a recent arrival, said James Murphy, a University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agent based in Conyers. The predatory worms - a kind of land planarian, or flatworm - have been making headlines lately with more than 100 people reporting recent sightings around Atlanta on the natural history website inaturalist. ![]() Wildlife biologists are also trying to curb invasions of the northern snakehead fish, which someone loosed in a Gwinnett County pond a couple of years ago that has begun to make its way down the Ocmulgee River watershed, and the weather loach, an aquarium fish recently found by University of Georgia scientists and students in McNutt Creek on the Oconee-Clarke County border.Īnd then there’s the shovel-headed garden worm, Bipalium kewense, also called the hammerhead worm. State wildlife officials are hoping to stamp out the Argentine tegu, a lizard that can reach four feet in length recently found in two middle Georgia counties. ![]() Big spiders are not the only invasive creatures turning up in Georgia these days. ![]()
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