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Giant Predatory Worms Are Invading France (qz.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: In a Peer J study published on May 22, "Giant worms chez moi!" zoologist Jean-Lou Justine of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, entomologist colleagues, and Pierre Gros, outline a discovery that "highlights an unexpected blind spot of scientists and authorities facing an invasion by conspicuous large invasive animals." About 100 citizen scientists ultimately contributed to the assessment of this alien invasion, identifying five giant predatory worm species in France that grow up to 10 inches long. The study relied on contributors' worm sightings, reported "mainly by email, sometimes by telephone." Researchers requested photographs and details about locality. In 2013, the Washington Post reports, "a group of terrorized kindergartners claimed they saw a mass of writhing snakes in their play field." These were giant flatworms! The study concludes that the alien creatures appear to reproduce asexually. They prey on other, smaller earthworms, stunning them with toxins. "The planarian also produces secretions from its headplate and body that adhere it to the prey, despite often sudden violent movements of the latter during this stage of capture," researcher note. In other words, the hammerheads produce a substance that allows them to stick to victims while killing them. The study points out that invasive alien flatworms have been spotted in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, and Australia. But the five species of hammerhead flatworms invading France are giants, growing up to 27 centimeters.

4 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Re:On news of the invasion, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    White flags broke out across the country.

    France has fought a hell of a lot more wars than America and they didn't hang back in either WW1 or WW2.

  2. Thats not a worm, THIS is a worm by azcrill · · Score: 5, Interesting

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Here in Victoria they can grow up to 3 metres in length. 27cm worms are runts.

  3. Re:There are predatory things invading France by michelcolman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, and we should be tolerant of their intolerance, because otherwise we would be intolerant and that would be bad since we're white.

    I, for one, welcome our new intolerant overlords.

  4. Re:There are predatory things invading France by butzwonker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Alas, the people who complain the most about other cultures tend to have the least of it on their own. Many of them don't even read novels. It's a sad truth that you can see that everywhere.

    In contrast to that, the people who actually produce and advance culture, who write books and poems, who compose music, create fine arts, and make movies have almost without exception always been international cosmopolitans. Many of them have lived in different countries during their life, and the vast majority are very tolerant. Goethe's travel diaries are a good example of that attitude, for instance, and since we're talking about France it is also worth mentioning that Alexandre Dumas was the son of a French nobleman and a black slave from Haiti.

    The moral of the story is that before even starting to think about complaining about other people's cultures, you should make damn sure that you have some of your own first.