Trying to take over the world: potential distribution of Obama nungara (Platyhelminthes: Geoplanidae), the Neotropical land planarian that has reached Europe

Abstract

Obama nungara Carbayo et al., 2016 is a land planarian (Platyhelminthes: Geoplanidae) native to southern South America, which has recently dispersed toward several countries of the European continent, thus becoming a threat to the native soil fauna. Its dispersion would be favoured by its wide food habit and its tendency to live linked to humans, being the plant trade its most plausible vector of dispersion. Here, we explored the potential distribution of O. nungara on a global scale by using the MaxEnt software. We used 144 records (encompassing ten countries) from sampling campaigns, citizen science, recent literature, and material deposited in scientific collections. Our results showed that southern South America has favourable climatic conditions for O. nungara . MaxEnt also allowed predicting expansions to countries of Europe where this planarian is already established and to others not yet colonized, as well as to Asia (southern coast of the Caspian Sea, Taiwan, and south‐east of mainland China) and Oceania (south‐east of Australia and New Zealand). The potential distribution of O. nungara was mainly outlined by climatic factors related to temperature (annual mean temperature, mean temperature of the coldest quarter, and annual temperature range). Thus, under a global warming scenario, a significant expansion of O. nungara relative to the current prediction is expected. This information may be useful to design strategies to prevent new introductions, since the dissemination of this planarian seems to be strongly man‐linked.