II FOOD OF SLUGS 



31 



turn, and wishing to ascertain if it were really thus engaged, he 

 drew the mouse a little back. When he returned in the even- 

 ing, the mouse was reduced almost to a skeleton, and the slug 

 was still there. ^ Indeed it would seem almost difficult to name 

 anything which Ainon ater will not eat. Dr. Gray mentions ^ a 

 case of a specimen which devoured sand recently taken from 

 the beach, which contained just enough animal matter to render 

 it luminous when trodden on in the dark ; after a little time the 

 faeces of the slug were composed of pure sand, united together 

 by a little mucus. A specimen kept two days in captivity 

 was turned out on a newspaper, and commenced at once to 

 devour it. The same specimen ate dead bodies of five other 

 species of slugs, a dead Unio^ pupae of Adimonia tanaceti, 

 part of the abdomen of a dragon-fly, and Pears' soap, the latter 

 reluctantly.^ 



According to Simroth* and Scharff ^ the food of several of 

 our British slugs, e.(^. Lijiiax maximus^ L.jiavus^ Avion subfusciis, 

 A. intermedius^ consists of non-chlorophyllaceous substances 

 only, while anything containing chlorophyll is as a rule refused. 

 On the other hand L. agrestis and Ajiialia carmata feed almost 

 entirely on green food, and are most destructive in gardens. 

 The latter species lives several inches under ground during the 

 day, and comes to the surface only at night. It is largely 

 responsible for the disappearance of bulbs, to which it is ex- 

 tremely partial. L. marginatus (^ = a?'horiim Bouch.) feeds ex- 

 clusively on lichens, and in captivity absolutely refuses green 

 leaves and a flesh diet. It follows therefore, if these observa- 

 tions are correct, that the popular notions about slugs must be 

 revised, and that while we continue to exterminate from our 

 gardens those species which have a taste for chlorophyll, we 

 ought to spare, if not encourage those whose tastes lie in the 

 opposite direction. 



Limax agrestis has been seen devouring the crushed remains 

 of Avion ater. Five specimens of the same species were once 

 noticed busily devouring a May-fly each, and this in the middle 

 of a large meadow, where it may be presumed there was no lack 



1 Zoologist, ii. p. 296 ; iii. p. 833 ; iv. p. 1216 ; iii. p. 1036 ; iv. p. 1216 ; iii. 

 p. 1037. 



2 Ann. Nat. Hist. ii. 1838, p. 310. 3 h. W. Kew, Naturalist, 1889, p. 103. 

 * Zeit. wiss. Zool xlii. p. 203 f. ^ ^^^i^ Trans. B. Dubl. Soc. (2) iv. p. 520. 



