Amaga expatria

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 : 12

Amaga expatria

Amaga expatria ( Figs 25 , 26 ), originally described from a few specimens found in a botanical garden in Bermuda ( Jones and Sterrer 2005), is relatively abundant in the islands of the French West Indies, Guadeloupe and Martinique (Justine et al. 2020a). It is a large species that is quite spectacular with its flat shape and its darker spotted yellow color. We have redescribed the external anatomy and histology of the species, and characterized its mitogenome, which is the second and only known Geoplaninae mitogenome after that of O. nungara . After this sequencing, the possibility mentioned by Solà et al. (2015), according to which some genes had non-canonical start codons, was re-evaluated. We know that the species consumes molluscs and earthworms, based on local observations in live animals and our molecular study of prey DNA (Justine et al. 2020a). There are no scientific papers on this species outside Bermuda, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, but there are many records in Trinidad and Tobago in iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=1153578).

Figures

Figure 25. Amaga expatria, alive, dorsal view, specimen from Guadeloupe. Photo by Pierre and Claude Guezennec (anterior tip is left). From Justine et al. (2020a).

Figure 26. Amaga expatria, maps of records in Martinique and Guadeloupe. The background colors indicate annual rainfall. Maps by Jessica Thévenot, background provided by Météo-France and used with authorization. From Justine et al. (2020a).