''Diversibipalium mayottensis'' is a species of

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

land flatworm Geoplanidae is a family of flatworms known commonly as land planarians or land flatworms. These flatworms are mainly predators of other invertebrates, which they hunt, attack and capture using physical force and the adhesive and digestive proper ...

, found only in

Mayotte Mayotte ( ; , ; , ; , ), officially the Department of Mayotte (), is an Overseas France, overseas Overseas departments and regions of France, department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is one of the Overseas departm ...

Description

The species is about 30–45 mm in length. The headplate is a rusty-brown colour. The rest of the body has a characteristic colour pattern, with its dorsal side being an iridescent blue–green ("dark turquoise glitter"). The species was formally described in 2022 after a comparative study of several species of land flatworms of the subfamily

Bipaliinae Bipaliinae is a subfamily of land planarians found mainly in Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, although some species have been introduced worldwide. Description The subfamily Bipaliinae is characterized by having a sem ...

, including the description of the complete

mitochondrial genome Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

in several species.

Distribution and origin

''Diversibipalium mayottensis'' has been recorded only from

, a French island in the

Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (, , ) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about long and across at its narrowest point, and reaches a depth of about off the coa ...

, where it was found the first time in 2015. The origin of the species is unknown, but the scientists who described it hypothesized that it could have been brought from

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, where other species of bipaliines are known.

Genetics and phylogenetic relationships

Fig-30-full Mitogenome Diversibipalium mayottensis Justine et al PeerJ 2022

The

of ''Diversibipalium mayottensis'' is circular, 15,989 base pairs in length and contains 12 protein coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes and 22 transfer RNA genes. A

phylogenetic analysis In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...

based on mitochondrial genes and nuclear genes such as

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

and SSU found that ''Diversibipalium mayottensis'' was the

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to all other species of hammerhead flatworms, suggesting that a new genus should be created to accommodate it but the scientists refrained from doing so in the absence of anatomical information. Therefore, the species was included in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Diversibipalium'' Kawakatsu et al., 2002, a collective group created to accommodate species whose anatomy of the copulatory apparatus is still unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diversibipalium mayottensis Geoplanidae Animals described in 2022 Fauna of Mayotte