from the nuke-them-from-l'orbite dept.
GungnirSniper writes:
"French appetizer escargot may be threatened by the invasive species commonly called New Guinea flatworms. In an article published on PeerJ, researchers report the discovery of these flatworms, whose scientific name is Platydemus manokwari, in a hothouse in the French city of Caen. The identification of these non-indigenous terrestrial worms was made certain thanks to both morphology and DNA barcoding of COI sequences.
This species is considered a threat to native snails wherever it is introduced. The recent discovery of P. manokwari in France represents a significant extension of distribution of this Invasive Alien Species from the Indo-Pacific region to Europe. If it escaped the hothouse, the flatworm might survive winters and become established in temperate countries.
The Invasive Species Specialist Group lists these snail-eating flatworms, which are 'considered a cause of the extinction of native land snails on several Pacific and Pacific Rim islands', as one of the hundred worst invasive species. Discovery News has a lighter but more sensational article."
(Score: 5, Funny) by ikanreed on Friday March 07 2014, @02:33PM
Honestly, their lack of prevention measures for invasive species was always a bit slimy. This could slow down the entire industry. This whole crisis has just slugged them in the face.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Buck Feta on Friday March 07 2014, @05:57PM
Letsnail this problem, while we can.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Wodan on Friday March 07 2014, @02:48PM
Are there any downsides? snails eat any food/plants we try to grow in the garden, and I don't want to eat snails, so it sounds win-win to me :)
(Score: 5, Informative) by wjwlsn on Friday March 07 2014, @03:44PM
Are there any downsides?...
http://www.carnegiemnh.org/science/default.aspx?id =16816 [carnegiemnh.org]
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 2) by TheloniousToady on Friday March 07 2014, @02:55PM
In France, you eat snail in shell. In snail shell, flatworm eat you.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by CoolHand on Friday March 07 2014, @03:15PM
As I'm too lazy (or disinterested) to read these articles, and I don't care about eating snails, can anyone tell me if these flatworms cause any other major issues? Alternatively, do snails provide any great benefit of which I'm unaware? (providing gourmet meals to frenchies doesn't count in my book)
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 1) by krishnoid on Friday March 07 2014, @04:08PM
You could always just watch the documentary [imdb.com]; I felt Dan Aykroyd turned in a reasonably entertaining performance in it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 07 2014, @03:36PM
(Score: 3, Informative) by sbgen on Friday March 07 2014, @04:58PM
I came here to give a shout out to PeerJ. Its a decent, open access journal where articles are freely available. For the authors, the publishing fee is highly affordable (no more than $330 for the principal investigators). Quality of the papers seems to be decent. For those with interest in science PeerJ may be a good place to visit. Perhaps you can comment as well.
No I dont have a relation with PeerJ nor have I published in it. Just wanted to let others know of this. After all, we keep seeing those "pay walled" sign next to most scientific publications and keep ranting on it.
Warning: Not a computer expert, but got to use it. Yes, my kind does exist.
(Score: 2, Funny) by captaindeerface on Friday March 07 2014, @07:37PM
... and not from the inside like these guys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucochloridium_parad oxum [wikipedia.org]
Zombie snails!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_LIz7kTok [youtube.com]
Parasites rule!
-Captain DeerFace
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Khyber on Friday March 07 2014, @08:05PM
Give me proof of that destructiveness. All your people have are articles without linked studies.
Yea, Try again when you can get someone on this site that isn't half-assed deep in said species because of potential pain relieving medication.
Who the fuck let this one through?
~Signed,
A Biologist.
Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008
(Score: 3) by Common Joe on Saturday March 08 2014, @01:33AM
Khyber, I supposed that I'm a little confused. What exactly is your beef with the article? When I Google [google.de] for information (limiting the results to last year), I still get hits back that this is an invasive species. I'm no biologist and I don't like looking through actual studies because of the amount of time it requires so I rely on experts from that field to tell me what is good and bad. Your claim that you're a biologist who seems to have a problem with what is said caught my eye. I'm looking for a little more detail from you about what problems you have with the summary, editing, and articles provided. Everything looked fine to me.
Thanks in advance.