Slug Snake Bug?

[Knightsbridge]

a colleagues fríend sent this vdo attachment http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenackroyd/2887133986/

to me to id. a Malaysian critter found in an urban area. anyone know?

[TBWG]

a colleagues fríend sent this vdo attachment http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenackroyd/2887133986/

to me to id. a Malaysian critter found in an urban area. anyone know?

Not 100% sure but it looks like some type of flower pot snake .. see http://cms.jcu.edu.au/discovernature/herps...n/JCUDEV_009971

TBWG

[phaethon]

Not even close. It's definitely invertebrate, best guess is that it's a land planarian (type of flat worm) - will keep digging.

[sbk]

My husband has seen it occasionally, thinks its some kind of worm but didn't take a close look and is not any kind of expert. So, they are around, although I've never seen one before myself. Wild how it looks like metal.

[Knightsbridge]

got this from a biologist colleague:

think this may be a land planarian. I don’t know much about them, but the horned shape of the head is very distinctive. There are lots of different ones, and they’re of interest to biologists because they have amazing powers of regeneration. In temperate climates they tend to be small (3mm) and aquatic, but tropical ones can grow up to 50cm apparently. This is a particularly nice one!!

[phaethon]

Wish I'd thought of that

K.

(MIoB, Chartered Biologist)

[meandwi]

a colleagues fríend sent this vdo attachment http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenackroyd/2887133986/

to me to id. a Malaysian critter found in an urban area. anyone know?

It's a snail that has come out of it's shell. My wife calls them "hoytaa". They live in Southern Thailand. We don't know it's english name.

meandwi

[Nienke]

I have come as far as Caecilian. See: http://www.answers.com/topic/caecilian (scroll down for a picture).

Nienke

[phaethon]

Two nice tries but snails cannot leave their shell and live, it is exuded by and is part of their body, sounds a little folklore-ish.

As amphibians Caecilians are vertebrates and the creature in the video is certianly not. The image in the URL cited bears a superficial resemblence in the thumbnail size but the differences are apparent in the full-size image (firm, round, ridged body for a start).

[appleman]

It's a snail that has come out of it's shell. My wife calls them "hoytaa". They live in Southern Thailand. We don't know it's english name.

meandwi

"Hoy" is the word for shelled invertebrates, "hoytaak" is the word for land snail, "taak" by itself usually refers to a slug, or an animal in the same family as snails which don't have shells. They live almost everywhere on earth but this is not one of them.

[Patsycat]

I think it's a yuck!!!

[unomi]

very very cool.

too bad its a pest :|

http://www.thaigraph.com/vdo/Illustrator/v.../planarian.html

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=389

What are they like to handle?

[phaethon]

What are they like to handle?

They're a riot to juggle with...

[unomi]

Aww But they would be perfect for it !

A renewable supply of juggling material.

[Knightsbridge]

finally got this message from Manchester Uni's Zoology Dept:

"Thanks for your enquiry about your odd organism from Malaysia!

I've sent the link round colleagues and students, and the consensus is that

it's a flat worm, sometimes called a land planarian. It's part of the

Platyhelminthes group, which includes tapeworms and flukes.

Here's a picture of one taken by one of our students, Andrew Johnson, in

Borneo:

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r249/AJ...orm_niah001.jpg

And here's one from the USA, on the Tree of Life website:

http://www.tolweb.org/onlinecontributors/a...1E9B5DDBEBAC931

DB14A6375426?page=ViewImageData&service=external&sp=533://http://www.tolweb.org/onlinecontrib...rnal&sp=533

Hope this enlightens you - it really was a striking video!""

so it looks strongly to be a land planarian...

[phaethon]