New record of Humbertium proserpina (Humbert, 1862) from Tenkasi district, Tamil Nadu, India

Species of genus Humbertium (Land planarian) are widely distributed in Southeast Asia, around greenhouses and gardens. However, taxonomy and cytogenetic data in this genus are restricted to a few species. Present report of hammerhead snake worm recorded from five falls in Courtallam, Tenkasi district, Tamil Nadu, India.Species was identified based on the photographs. This the first record of species from the Western Ghats in Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu, India.

New locality record of Bipalium univittatum Grube, 1866 (Tricladida: Geoplanidae: Bipaliinae) from India

Land planarians (Platyhelminthes) are likely important components of the soil cryptofauna, although relevant aspects of their ecology such as their density remain largely unstudied. The land planarian Bipalium univittatum Grube,1866 (Tricladida: Geoplanidae) is thought to be native from Southeast Asia. This species is found in Periyakallar, Valparai, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu state, India. This note gives details, distribution, description and conservation status

Revision of Indian Bipaliid species with description of a new species, Bipalium bengalensis from West Bengal, India (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida: Terricola)

A new species of Bipaliid land planarian, Bipalium bengalensis is described from Suri, West Bengal, India. The species is jet black in colour without any band or line but with a thin indistinct mid-dorsal groove. Semilunar head margin is pinkish in live condition with numerous eyes on its margin. Body length (BL) ranged from 19.00 to 45.00mm and width varied from 9.59 to 13.16% BL. Position of mouth and gonopore from anterior end ranged from 51.47 to 60.00% BL and 67.40 to 75.00 % BL respectively. Comparisons were made with its Indian as well as Bengal congeners.Salient features, distribution and biometric data of all the 29 species of Indian Bipaliid land planarians are revised thoroughly. Genus controversy in Bipaliid taxonomy is critically discussed and a proposal of only two genera Bipalium and Humbertium is suggested.

New records of the giant planarian Polycladus gayi Blanchard, 1845 (Platyhelminthes: Geoplanidae) with notes on its conservation biology

Land planarians (Tricladida:Geoplanidae) comprise about 910 species distributed in four subfamilies and can be found on all continents except Antarctica (Sluys & Riutort 2018; Sluys 2019). The Neotropical region possesses nearly 31% of all the described terrestrial planarian species, most of them belonging to the subfamily Geoplaninae (Sluys 1999; Grau & Carbayo 2010). Land planarians are mostly habitat-specialists, living in the humid soils of native forest, and predating on invertebrates like earthworms, isopods, mollusks and harvestmen, among others (Ogren 1995; Carbayo & Leal-Zanchet 2003; Boll & Leal-Zanchet 2016). Although most planarian species seem to be physiologically sensitive, for example to environmental moisture, a few land planarian genera like Bipalium Stimpson and Obama Carbayo et al., have successfully invaded many habitats, even in highly perturbed areas (Kawaguti 1932; Sluys 2019). Therefore, some of these invertebrate species appear to be good candidates as habitat quality bioindicators according to some authors (Sluys 1998; Gerlach et al., 2013; Negrete et al., 2014).