Menzies Bay Smiling Worm (Antiponemertes allisonae)

This species is a terrestrial ribbon worm, about 1 cm long and about 0.1 cm wide, with a brown mottled upper surface and relatively large eyes. 

Apparently, this ribbon worm has always lived in only one place, Menzies Bay on the Banks Peninsula on New Zealand’s South Island. There the worm was found under fallen tree- or tree fern trunks, in places that were neither too wet nor too dry. 

The species’ former habitat has now been largely destroyed by deforestation but also by intensive grazing by sheep, which are omnipresent in New Zealand, as well as by introduced deer. 

Searches, most recently in 1988, yielded no results. 

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syn. Geonemertes allisonae Moore

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edited: 25.10.2011