'Spooky and gross': Woman's mysterious discovery in her backyard
A Victorian woman has made a mysterious yet “gross” find in her yard.
Kara Thomas, who lives in the Yarra Valley, was moving logs in her yard on October 20 when she came across the unusual creature.
“I found him underneath it, looking all spooky and gross,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
Confounded by what the squirming animal was, she posted a video of it on Facebook looking for insight.
Some people compared it to the “demogorgon” monster from the sci-fi series Stranger Things. One woman joked it was a creature from “outer space”.
“Is it a snake embryo?” another wondered.
“This isn’t the garden buddy I had hoped for. Why couldn’t I get a ladybug or cute little caterpillar?” Ms Thomas wrote.
Dr Leigh Winsor, an expert in planarians, or worms, at James Cook University told Yahoo News Australia the creature appears to be a “white flatworm”.
“If you look closely at the head end, you will see very tiny black spots around the tip, and continuing along the sides - these are its eyes with which it detects light and dark,” Dr Winsor said.
“To some extent the colour of the flatworm depends upon how recently the specimen fed on an earthworm - the colour of the digesta in its gut gives the flatworm a pinkish colour like your specimen.
“It is a native species widespread in Victoria. One of its very close Victorian relatives has inadvertently been transported to the UK and parts of Europe via the nursery trade, and the flatworm is now predating on British earthworms, though it is not regarded as a major pest species.”
As for Ms Thomas, she said she never wants to run into that “creepy little sucker” again.
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