Invasive Species
It is an invasive species in Europe, feeding there almost exclusively on earthworms. This degrades soil quality. European earthworm predators are reluctant to eat it although cases of frogs and beetle larvae consuming flatworms have been recorded. It has been seen in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Faroe Islands. It might have arrived in the early 1960s, being first recorded in Belfast in 1963. The New Zealand flatworm is easily transported accidentally in plant pots in adult or egg form. They tend to be common in garden centres and may have arrived in the UK with exotic plants. It is suggested that they may thrive in parts of western Norway, southern Sweden, Denmark, Germany and northern parts of Poland, if they invade these regions.
Similar invasions of other terrestrial planarians are occurring in many other parts of the world. For example, planarians of the genus Bipalium are widely distributed in North America, and planarians of the genus Platydemus on many islands in the Pacific.
Read more about this topic: New Zealand Flatworm
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