New Zealand Invertebrates

DSC_1507 Giant flatworm ('Australopacifica' sp.) 'digesting' a Denniston giant land snail (Powelliphanta patrickensis) which it has captured at night. To feed, the flatworm extrudes a sheet-like digestive tissue through a muscular tube or pharynx, located halfway down the underside of it's own body - this it places over the opening of the snail's shell. The flatworm's digestive tissue secretes a powerful enzyme which reduces the struggling snail to a ghastly stew inside it's shell, and the snail's nutrients are then absorbed by the flatworm. Once digestion is complete the digestive tissue is withdrawn back through the tube into the flatworm's body and the animal moves on, leaving behind a slimy, empty shell. Denniston Plateau *

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DSC_1507 Giant flatworm ('Australopacifica' sp.) 'digesting' a Denniston giant land snail (Powelliphanta patrickensis) which it has captured at night. To feed, the flatworm extrudes a sheet-like digestive tissue through a muscular tube or pharynx, located halfway down the underside of it's own body - this it places over the opening of the snail's shell. The flatworm's digestive tissue secretes a powerful enzyme which reduces the struggling snail to a ghastly stew inside it's shell, and the snail's nutrients are then absorbed by the flatworm. Once digestion is complete the digestive tissue is withdrawn back through the tube into the flatworm's body and the animal moves on, leaving behind a slimy, empty shell. Denniston Plateau *

DSC 1507 Giant flatworm land Australopacifica snail Denniston Plateau carnivorous predatory attack smother kill suffocating digesting