1 68 The Irish Naturalid. [July, 



THE EGGS OF THE KERRY SLUG, 



GEOMALACUS MACULOSUS, AI.LMAN. 

 BY THOMAS ROGERS. 



(Pt.ate 5-) 

 Though many naturalists have gone hunting for the Spotted 

 Slug in its native haunts, ver)^ few seem to have seen its eggs : 

 indeed, I know of only one published reference to them — that 

 quoted by Dr.Scharff in his "Slugs of Ireland,"^ on the authority 

 of Simroth, who states that Signor de Silva e Castro had seen 

 the eggs in Portugal, and that the}- were quite transparent. 

 In view of this, perhaps, the following observations on 0:%^ 

 clusters obtained man}' years ago b}' myself, and some lately 

 by Mr. R. Welch, ma}^ be of interest. 



In August, 1875, I received a Gcovialanis from Kerry, and 

 placed it in a glass jar along with a little carrot, cabbage 

 leaves, and lettuce, which were renewed from time to time, 

 occasionall}' washing out the jar with clean water. The 

 Geo7)ialacus seemed to keep in good condition and bright- 

 looking. In the August of the year following I found that it 

 had deposited eleven eggs of an oval form, about three- 

 sixteenths of an inch long, which appeared to me ver}- large 

 for the size of the slug. The eggs were almost transparent, 

 or opalescent. A month later, when cleaning out the jar, I 

 found that six of the eggs had assumed a dark colour, due to 

 the development of the pigment-cells of the 3'oung slugs ; and 

 soon afterwards I found that one of the young slugs had been 

 hatched out, and began to creep about the bod}' of the parent. 

 The two remaining eggs had become quite dull, with no 

 apparent vitalit}' in them, and in one I observed a small 

 worm-like entozoon working round the inside of the inner 

 wall of the ^gg. Another egg-case had collapsed from some 

 cause. All the young that were hatched out were kept during 

 the following winter, except that now and then one or two 

 were missing. 



On the 30th of May, 1877, the jar was examined, and T found 

 that all the young slugs, except one, had disappeared ; this 

 one I placed in a separate jar, but it ultimatel}' died. I came 

 to the conclusion that the 3'oung slugs had been eaten b}' 

 their parent. From the j^oung slug that had been separated 

 from the mother slug I took out the internal shell. 



^ Tratisactions o{ W\e Royal DubHn Society, 1S91, p. 553. 



