Hamerhead Flatworm - the oddest worm I've seen...

End of October, 2007. We were evacuated from our home due to the crazy wildfires in San Diego County. Luckily we have family in San Diego where it was safe - in the Kensington area. So we loaded up the three dogs (BIG dogs...) and three cats and headed south. This worked out great because the dogs are used to being there and love Grandma and Grandpa - but there isn't much of a yard for them to play and run in - so we did walks two or three times a day.

It was on one of these evening walks that this dude was noticed by Jen. Sorry I didn't get something in the photo for scale. Best I have it the lower right corner is the end of my camera strap. I'd say this guy was about 14 inches long. We had no idea what it was. Jen thought some odd snake. I thought worm - but good worm or bad worm??




Good ole Google came through again with a number of links that quickly answered the question - it is a Hammerhead Flatworm (land planarian) (Bipalium kewense).

Click the thumbnails for more detail. And I added some links below to information. This is a pretty freaky looking worm the first time you see one!




http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/1839/

http://whatsthatbug.com/worms.html