41 



Limacology. 



By Alfred Sich, F.E.S. {Member of the Coiicholof/ical Society of 

 Great Britain and Ireland). Read November Wtli, 1915. 



Slugs belong to the Phylum Mollusca and, I think, that is all I 

 am going to say about the place they occupy in the scheme of 

 nature which man, the scientific animal, has propounded. If we 

 wish to study slugs we can go out into the garden, a space often 

 rich in various forms of land mollusca, in spite of the care we take 

 to exterminate them. The fields, lanes, woods, and hill sides, as 

 well as river banks, are also profitable hunting grounds. By turn- 

 ing over stones, logs of wood, dead leaves in damp places, and by 

 various other methods, which each ingenious limacologist or slug- 

 hunter will invent for himself, we can find, take home and get well 

 acquainted with several species. Then we shall wish to know more 

 about them, to talk about them to others and possibly even to write 

 about them. When we have arrived at this stage it is opportune to 

 think about books, for we shall desire to know what the other slug- 

 hunters call that small grey one, that solid black one, or that long 

 yellow one, that we have become so well acquainted with. 



Some years ago, when I reached this stage, it was no easy matter 

 to find a book that would give the desired information, as some of 

 our species were little known and there was great confusion of 

 names, even in our own country. Now the condition of things has 

 certainly improved, for all our known species are firmly established 

 and there is a tacit agreement in the use of names. For the benefit 

 of those who know nothing of slugs or snails I will mention two 

 modern hooks, which have been of the greatest use, and I am very 

 much indebted to the authors of them. Mr. Lionel E. Adams has 

 written the " Collector's Manual," a book convenient to take on a 

 holiday and containing an excellent account of our land and fresh- 

 water mollusca, especially the slugs. The other is the volume on 

 slugs in Mr. John W. Taylor's " Monograph." Here we have 

 beautiful coloured figures of all the species, and maps showing their 

 distribution, together with full details of the anatomy, habits and 

 varieties of our slugs. Armed with these two books the tyro slug- 

 hunter will be able to increase his knowledge to a wide extent. It 

 is in the books that we can find the family, sub-family, etc., to 

 which our various slugs belong. The slug itself does not know in 

 the least whether it belongs to the cattle on account of its horns, or 



