The French scientists were stunned to realize that the nation was being invaded by giant worms

This worm turned out to have existed in France for decades, but no one knows.

On a beautiful day, Jean-Lou Justine received a picture of a giant worm, whose head was flat like a shovel. In life, biologists have repeatedly been exposed to giant worms, but this time it is different.

He was really surprised, because the place where the worm was found was a vegetable garden in France.

"This worm has never been in France," said the professor at the French Natural History Museum.

This hammerhead worm can be up to 30cm long, but not native to France. It is the predatory worm of Asia, which has a more suitable habitat: warm sunshine, heavy rain, fertile soil.

The wormhead can be up to 30cm long.

The photographer is Pierre Gros - a naturalist. Two weeks later, Gros continued to send Justine a second picture, also a giant worm, but a completely different species.

By the third time, Justin had thought that this was just a joke."This guy brought worms back when he traveled, and pretended to find them in the garden," he said. Only thing, Gros doesn't joke.

Later, the two men combined and conducted a study of the strange giant worms lurking in the French gardens. According to what they learned, about two decades ago, flat worms somehow managed to settle in this country.

"Animals that hide in the soil are often overlooked. That's why they are often accidentally transported around the world," commented Archie Murchi, a biologist from the United Kingdom, though not involved in the study. .

"They are spreading, and will continue to do so through international trade."

This is not a native worm in France.

Previously, biologists have recognized that some of the small worms have also been introduced into France, and each of the people escargot specialties of snails. However, just after this study, Justine realized that the whole nation was being invaded by the giant "shovel" worm.

He also pulled the conclusions from a study five years ago, saying that these worms are just some insignificant alien species."It was a mistake, really" - he frankly shared.

The research process is hard

Justine's team then appealed to all public sources, in order to provide more images of giant worms with large, flat heads . The group's mailbox quickly flooded with thousands of images of all species of legless, including leeches, caterpillars, and snails.

For a while, Justine realized that the French residents knew that something was wrong in the gardens for many years. It's just that they don't know what they found themselves.

As in 1999, a family returned to a terrible long worm. They kept the tape because the creature was too strange, and Justine quickly came to the conclusion: it was flat worms.

Flat worms - especially worms - are predators.

Or in 2013, a group of preschool children screamed, thinking that snakes were invading the kindergarten. But it is still flat worms. In total, there were 111 cases of flat worms seen between 1999 and 2017.

Most cases are found in southern France. Justine hypothesizes that these are areas with wet summers, not too cold in winter, enough for them to survive. And they also appear in islands in French territory.

Why is the flatworm invasion dangerous?

Flat worms - especially worms - are predators. They "hunt" by digging soil, using toxic chemicals to paralyze baits - are native earthworms , and then swallow them in digestive juices.

Exotic flatworms will hunt native worms.

Although it may seem insignificant, there are actually flat worms that harm humans. Murchie has studied the invasion of New Zealand flatworms in Ireland and Scotland, and the results show that agricultural production in these regions has decreased by at least 6%.

At the present time, it is unclear whether hammerheads can change biodiversity in France, because Justine has not studied the soil ecosystem. But the fact that they are "dangerous predators" is still true, and they make the scientists really worry.

"Exotic flatworms can really affect the soil environment," Murchie said. "The authors of this study were right when they warned about this wormhead."

And the most important thing for Justine is not how big or dangerous these animals are, but how they come here.

"With a developed country, there are many scientists and training institutions everywhere. But these worms appear without anyone noticing."