The Pufferfish’s Lethal Poison Shows Up Right Under Our Feet

Lurking in the soil, even under a most peaceful and well-nurtured garden, is a surprisingly fierce predator: Bipalium adventitium, an invasive flatworm that began appearing in the United States about 100 years ago, likely hitching a ride in potted plants from Asia. Though harmless to humans, these flatworms can hunt and eat earthworms more than 10 times their own mass. Even when earthworms use their distinctive defense, breaking apart and slithering away, the flatworms track down and devour them.

“Yes, they’re rather violent,” says Peter Ducey, an evolutionary ecologist at SUNY Cortland. “In fact, they will attack an earthworm up to 100 times their size, eat what they can and leave the rest for dead.” Also, there’s this: “When this flatworm eats, its mouth comes out of its body, and lays like