THIS is one of the first pictures published of flatworms that are devastating native earthworms in Northern Ireland. The flatworms (centre) grow up to 15 centimetres long and prey on earthworms (bottom) after dissolving them with digestive juices. The flatworm (Artioposthia triangulata) colonised Northern Ireland in the 1960s.
Rod Blackshaw of the Agricultural Zoology Research Division of the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland in Belfast suspects that the flatworm arrived from its home in New Zealand in imported produce. He says that the only constraint on their spread appears to be the availability of food. The department is seeking ways to control the flatworm before the damage it does to agriculture is irreparable.
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