49 



quarters of an inch long. It is usually of a yellowish -grey with 

 very faint darker bands. It has one peculiarity which separates it 

 from the young of other slugs with which it might be confounded. 

 If, when we find it, it should be extended, we must try to bring it 

 into the resting attitude and then, by holding it up to the light, 

 we shall see that its back is covered with minute prickles. A 

 lens will show these distinctly. It is as well to note the prickles 

 in the field, as after we have had the animals in a box for some 

 time they become inconspicuous. It appears to live chiefly on 

 fungoid growth. I have found it on Bnletm at Oxshott and among 

 decaying oak-leaves in Richmond Park. It is probably common 

 but requires looking for and has no doubt been passed over as the 

 young of other species. The first specimen I took myself was at 

 Torquay in October, and, wishing to take it back to our rooms, I 

 put it in an entomologist's glass-bottomed pasteboard box with a 

 few blades of grass. When I returned, in about two hours' time, 

 the grass was in the box but no slug. There was a thin brownish 

 patch on the side of the box and that was the dried remains of 

 Arion interniediits. It is always better to carry slugs in metal boxes. 



There is now only one more species to note. This is the strange 

 Irish slug, Geonialacns maculosns. It differs from the Arionis in 

 having a solid shell under the shield, but the respiratory orifice lies 

 in the anterior portion of the shield and it possesses a mucus gland 

 at the tail. It is rather a large slug, usually of a blackish hue with 

 rather large pale yellow spots all along the back. The only speci- 

 mens I have seen were exhibited in the Zoological Gardens some 

 time ago. The peculiar coloration gives the animal an appearance 

 quite distinct from any other British slug. This species is so very 

 restricted \n its habitat that unless we are prepared to visit the 

 south-west corner of Ireland, where it was discovered by Mr. 

 Andrews in 1842, we shall have little hope of making its acquaint- 

 ance in a wild state. Outside Britain it occurs only in North-west 

 France, north-west of Spain, and the north of Portugal. Mr. 

 Taylor describes its favourite haunts in Kerry as being the much 

 fissured rocks on the bare mountain-sides near the sea, where the 

 atmosphere is kept warm and dauip by the Atlantic mists. During 

 the day these slugs mostly hide in the narrow fissures, but com© 

 out at nightfall to feed on the lichens growing on the rocks. 



Having now given a few hints as to where to hunt for slugs, and 

 how to study them, and having lightly touched upon all our known 

 British species, I have only to add that the field of research, open 

 to any who care to explore it, is still very wide. It would be, for 

 instance, of high interest to obtain accurate life-histories of the 

 different species by rearing them from the egg and noting the 

 colour changes that probably take place during growth in all our 

 species. Many problems of distribution and variation also await 

 solution so that the young limacologist, starting from our present 

 standpoint, need not despair of finding work nor of making 

 discoveries. 



