英語の後に日本語が続きます。
This is a shovel-headed garden worm (Bipalium kewense). When I first saw it, I almost screamed. Slowly moving, it looks harmless but it has surprisingly terrifying features.Firstly, it carries tetrodotoxin, the same deadly poison found in pufferfish. Secondly, its mouth is in the middle of its belly and when finding its favorite food, e.g., earthworms, it pushes its stomach outside its body, wraps it around the worm, liquefies it, and drinks it 😱. Thirdly, this worm can split its own body to make clones, so it will not die even if it is cut up.
Originally from Southeast Asia, it traveled around the world hidden in the soil of potted plants and was first discovered in 1878 at the Kew Gardens in England. Because of this wandering and its hairpin shaped head (2nd photo), in Japan, the worm is called "watari kougai hiru," which translates to "wandering hairpin leech," although it's not a leech but a relative of a planarian.
Funnily, despite these terrifying features, it often accidentally dries up and dies on hot asphalt after it rains.
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| 2026/9/27 |
