A taste for exotic food: Neotropical land planarians feeding on an invasive flatworm.

ABSTRACT: Invasive species establish successfully in new habitats especially due to their ability to include new species in their diet and due to the freedom from natural enemies. However, native species may also adapt to the use of new elements in their ecosystem. The planarian Endeavouria septemlineata, first recorded in Hawaii, was later found in Brazil. Recently, we found it in human-disturbed areas in southern Brazil and here we investigate its interactions with other invertebrates both in the field and in the laboratory. We observed the species in the field during collecting activities and hence maintained some specimens alive in small terraria in the laboratory, where we offered different invertebrate species as potential prey and also put them in contact with native land planarians in order

SUBMITTER: Boll PK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4614845 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature