TT 18S 
XX. Account of a fpinning Limax, or Slug. By Mr. Thomas Hoy, of 
Gordon Caflle, Affociate of the Linnean Society. 
Read February 2, 1790. 
T is well known that feveral infects, fuch as Spiders and the Ca- 
terpillars of many fpecies of Moths, can convey themfelves fafely 
through the air, without wings, by means of filk lines or threads 
fpun out of their own body: but it has not been obferved (as far 
as I know) that any fpecies, arranged under Linnzus’s clafs of 
Vermes, is poffeffed of a fimilar power of felf-conveyance. An in- 
ftance occurred to me, about a year ago, which leaves me no room 
to doubt but that fome of them can convey themfelves, at leaft 
downwards from a confiderable height, in that manner. In going 
through a plantation of Scotch firs, I obferved fomething hanging 
from a branch of one of them, at a little diftance. As it feemed to 
be larger than any Caterpillar of the tribes Geometre or Tortrices, 
that I was acquainted with, it attracted my particular notice. When 
I approached it, I found it to be a Sza// or rather Slug * ; and, at 
firft, fuppofed that it had been fhaken from the tree by wind, after ` 
having been entangled in a Spider’s web, or among the filk lines 
of fome Caterpillar. Upon obferving it, however, more attentively, 
it was hanging by one line only, which was attached to its tail. This 
_ * Limax. : 
5 line 
