Parakontikia ventrolineata (Dendy, 1892) Winsor, 1991 Dendy, 1892

Justine, Jean-Lou, Gastineau, Romain & Winsor, Leigh, 2024, Land flatworms (Tricladida: Geoplanidae) in France and French overseas territories: ten years of research, Zoologia (e 24004) 41, pp. 1-25 : 11-12

Parakontikia ventrolineata

Parakontikia ventrolineata ( Figs 22, 23 ) is highly abundant in parts of mainland France, particularly in Brittany, where the climate is mild and humid. The species comes from Australia and has also invaded much of the British Isles, especially the South, and other countries in Europe ( Álvarez-Presas et al. 2014, Thunnissen et al. 2022). We suspect that the origin of the population found in France is Great Britain, which faces Brittany; amateur Breton gardeners have told us that it is common to make a return trip to Cornwall to bring back potted plants. In addition to mainland France, the species is also present on Reunion Island, in the Indian Ocean (unpublished data). There are also recent records from Mexico ( De Luna and Boll 2023). Apart from a short article ( Justine et al. 2014a), we have not published on the distribution of this species, but we have described its complete mitogenome. This mitogenome, the second obtained for a Rhynchodeminae , shares a certain number of characteristics with Pl. manokwari , namely a 32 bp overlap between ND4L and ND4, premature termination of ND5 by a tRNA-Ser, and an extra-long cox2 gene ( Gastineau and Justine 2020).

Parakontikia ventrolineata displays a particular behavior that is not found in other species. Individuals tend to take refuge in the morning on strawberries and vegetables close to the ground, particularly the holes made in strawberries by slugs. It also has a marked tendency to invade fallen fruit, particularly apples. This behavior means that it is considered a nuisance by amateur gardeners, who see their crops invad- ed by small black and sticky worms ( Justine et al. 2014a).

Figures

Figures 22–23. Parakontikia ventrolineata: (23) Alive, specimen from France, MNHN JL56. Photo by Jean-Lou Justine, uploaded to Wikipedia, license CC-BY. Original file: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geoplanidae_Kontikia_ventrolineata_MNHN_JL56_with_scale_-_red_background.JPG. (23) Map of occurrence in mainland France including Corsica. Based on 310 observations in the Openobs database.