Check List 21(3): 557-564, doi: 10.15560/21.3.557
First confirmed records with molecular data of the terrestrial flatworm Bipalium kewense Moseley, 1878 (Tricladida, Geoplanidae) in Madagascar, Egypt, and South Africa
Romain Gastineau‡, Andrianjaka Ravelomanana§, Remondah Rushdy Ramzy|, Marcel Koken¶, Suzelyce Eva Soavolamanoro#, Christian Otis¤, Brian Boyle¤, Delphine Gey«, Leigh Winsor», Jean-Lou Justine˄‡ University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland§ Université d’Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar| Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore¶ LABOCEA R&D, Plouzané, France# Unaffiliated, Madirokely, Madagascar¤ Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada« Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France» James Cook University, Townsville, Australia˄ Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France
Corresponding author: Romain Gastineau ( romain.gastineau@usz.edu.pl ) Academic editor: Fernando Carbayo © Romain Gastineau, Andrianjaka Ravelomanana, Remondah Rushdy Ramzy, Marcel Koken, Suzelyce Eva Soavolamanoro, Christian Otis, Brian Boyle, Delphine Gey, Leigh Winsor, Jean-Lou Justine. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Gastineau R, Ravelomanana A, Ramzy RR, Koken M, Soavolamanoro SE, Otis C, Boyle B, Gey D, Winsor L, Justine J-L (2025) First confirmed records with molecular data of the terrestrial flatworm Bipalium kewense Moseley, 1878 (Tricladida, Geoplanidae) in Madagascar, Egypt, and South Africa. Check List 21(3): 557-564. https://doi.org/10.15560/21.3.557 |  |
Abstract
The land flatworm Bipalium kewense Moseley, 1878 is the most widely distributed invasive species of land flatworm, being found in over 78 countries. A specimen was recently collected in an urbanized part of the capital city of Antananarivo in Madagascar, identified on the basis of external morphology and later confirmed by molecular methods. This represents the first strictly confirmed occurrence of the species in Madagascar. Previous African records of Bipalium kewense are summarized, and two records from continental Africa (Egypt and South Africa) are confirmed by molecular barcoding.
Keywords
Africa, Bipaliinae, Continenticola, Indian Ocean, mitochondrial genome, Platyhelminthes