I900.J Rogers. — The Eggs of the Kerry Slug. 169 



On the 29th July following I noticed that the Geomalaais 

 had deposited fourteen more egg'>. which were slighth^ 

 adhering to each other by mucus. These were removed 

 into another jar, and kept separate from the parent slug. On 

 20th August eight more eggs were deposited, and placed in 

 a separate jar, as I was anxious to raise a few adults. The 

 eggs which were laid at the end of July were examined on 

 October 12th, and I found that seven slugs were then grown to 

 about half to three-quarters of an inch long ; one Qgg had 

 collapsed ; what became of the others I cannot tell. 



The eggs deposited on August 20th had not been hatched 

 when I looked at them on October 12th, but by the end of the 

 month the}' were all hatched, except one, which appeared to 

 be dead. These young slugs increased in size until the 

 beginning of February, 1878 (having been fed with carrot) ; 

 two of them were then found dead, and very much attenuated. 

 The odontophores of these were found to have the same 

 characters as those of adults. 



Of the slugs hatched from the eggs deposited at the end 

 of July previousl}', I found one dead on the 20th of Februarj^, 

 1878. Thinking that they died for want of animal food, I 

 cut an earthworm in three pieces, and placed it in the jar 

 with four or five Zonites nitidulus. On clearing out the jar 

 on March 17th, 1878, I found that the j'oung slugs had 

 begun to diminish in size and number, only two moderately 

 healthy ones remaining, and another much reduced in size, 

 with its head eaten off and the internal shell exposed ; of 

 the others I could not find a trace. The earthworm had not 

 been eaten, the head and tail divisions of the worm were still 

 alive, but the centre part was dead. 1 also found that one of 

 the Zonites had a hole through its shell, and the latter was 

 empl}'. On the 17th March I examined the jar in which were 

 placed the first batch of eggs which I had separated from the 

 parent, and found all the young slugs dead, except two. The 

 discovery of four internal shells of the others leads me to put 

 down their disappearance to cannibalism. 



On July 19th, 1878, the parent slug was found dead, but 

 from what cause I could not determine. It might have been 

 through old age, want of proper food, or excessive heat of the 

 month (the latter most probably). The young slugs seemed 



