GujiTuku

Diversibipalium rauchi

…is a species of terrestrial planarian that occurs in southeast Asia. Like other terrestrial flatworms this species is a voracious predator and feeds almost exclusively on earthworms, although they are known to take other prey. Once it catches its prey it will feed by extending its pharynx into its body and sucking out its inside.

Classification

Animalia-Platyhelminthes-Rhabditophora-Seriata-Tricladida-Terricola-Bipaliidae-Diversibipalium-D. rauchi

A predatory hammerhead flatworm (Diversibipalium sp.) in Sarawak, Malaysia

Hammerhead flatworm, Diversibipalium sp., Bipaliinae

Photographed in Sarawak, Malaysia by Bernard Dupont

Last photo shows two individuals mating

if a worm was a pretty they/them

Note : "Goodbye, 2024. Hello, 2025." Where I am, it is just a few hours away from New Year's; in celebration, I wanted to make my last post of 2024. Happy New Year everyone !

Giant Shield Bug a.k.a. Asiarcha angulosa (Family : Tessaratomidae)

Picasso Bug a.k.a. Sphaerocoris annulus (Family : Scutelleridae)

Bipalium choristosperma (Family : Geoplanidae)

I can't find the species of the ones below but they're penis fencing, isn't that cool? the loser becomes a female and bears eggs ! :D

a little guy! a shmoooplefloops even. a wee phlibaboo perhaps. a wungus too if you will

and he plays the tiniest string instrument I have ever seen. I can't even tell what it is simply because of how inconceivably small it is!

it sounds like what you'd get if you poured a big bucket of water in a cave, but it also sounds almost like a mucus net flopping in the wind, if said wind was pink and made of heavy smoke and flowers. it's just incomprehensible!

glorpiness rating: so glorp 🥺

source (researchgate) I cropped the image a bit, just to focus more on the cercaria I guess

creative commons? idk

a pair of hammerhead worms (Bipalium pennsylvanicum) attempting to kill and eat an earthworm larger than themselves.

the flatworms produce tetrodotoxin, one of the most potent toxins on the planet, and with their sticky bodies they cling to the thrashing worm until it stops moving and they begin to break it down into a soup.

after feeding, the blood and flesh of the worm is visible in their bodies, staining them red until they further digest it. Bipalium are specialist predators and while some only eat snails, this species feeds only on earthworms.

bipaliines feed on either worms or land gastropods, tracking the slime trails of prey with their highly sensitive spade- or crescent-shaped head plate.

Southeast Asia is a hotspot for bipaliine diversity, and at least six species can be found in Singapore, all of which I managed to encounter this summer!

Dugesia Planaria: A Comprehensive Study Planaria, commonly known as planarian flatworms, belongs to the phylum Platyhelminthes. These are free-living, non-parasitic flatworms widely studied in developmental biology due to their extraordinary regenerative abilities. Found predominantly in freshwater bodies, Dugesia species play a critical ecological role by preying on small invertebrates and…

she's always inexplicably covered with a thick layer of black goo, and she has some mild drinking problems

everytime she goes to the bar she gets the goo on everything and everyone and it makes them all really sad because now the expensive drinks they've paid for are all goopy and rotten and toxic and then they can't get drunk anymore because the sludge neutralised any semblance of alcohol in their drinks

the only person who's not bothered by this is umbotectum boehmigi, because she's gotten very used to it

you should be like her. you should get used to drinking toxic slop. everyday. drink the sludge. just like her. it's very healthy. trust me

glorpiness rating: 🔼🔽🔼🔽🔼🔽🔼🔽🔼🔽🔼🔽🔼🔽🔼🔽🔼🔽🔼🔽

photographed by Moses Michelsohn (pecosvalleydiamond), uploaded to iNaturalist! link to original observation

she's currently training an army of small slimy flatworms

what will these little goopy planarians do?? well they're going to grunt, wheeze and groan aggressively near your left ear next time you sleep

scary

.......spookiness rating: 74.5% I wouldn't want a small dude breathing and slobbering on my left ear right before I sleep. actually I lied that would be funny

she has a little snoot that she uses to smell and poke things, which is her primary way of sensing the world! it often gets a little uncomfortable (imagine being repeatedly touched by a wet noodle) but nobody gets mad at her because we all know that most of the time she can't see what she's touching. her eyes are a bit limited after all......

glorpiness rating: a worm???? om the string??? boioioioioioioing