32 



FOOD OF SLUGS 



CHAP. 



of green food. The capture and eating of insects by Mollusca 

 seems very remarkable, but this story does not stand alone. 

 Mr. T. Vernon WoUaston once enclosed in a bottle at least three 

 dozen specimens of Coleoptera together with 4 Helix cantiana^ 

 5 H. hispida, and 1 H. virgata^ together with an abundant sup- 

 ply of fresh leaves and grass. About a fortnight afterwards, 

 on the bottle being opened, it was found that every single speci- 

 men of the Coleoptera had been devoured by the snails.^ Amalia 

 marginata in captivity has been fed upon the larvae of Euchelia 

 jaeohaeae^ eating three in two liours.^ 



Limax maximus (Fig. 19) has been seen frequently to make 

 its way into a dairy and feed on raw beef.^ Individuals kept in 



confinement are guilty of 

 cannibalism. Mr. W. A. 

 Gain kept three specimens 

 in a box together, and found 

 one of them two-thirds eaten, 

 " the tail left clean cut off, 

 reminding one of that por- 

 tion of a fish on a fishmon- 

 ger's stall." That starvation 

 did not prompt the crime 

 Fig. \^.—Limax maximus L. PO, puimo- was proved by the fact that 

 nary orifice : X §. during the preceding night 



the slug had been supplied with, and had eaten, a consid- 

 erable quantity of its favourite food. On two other occasions 

 the same observer found one of his slugs deprived of its slime 

 and a portion of its skin, and in a djdng condition."^ An adult 

 L. maximus, kept for thirty-three days in captivity with a young 

 Avion ater, attacked it frequently, denuded it of its slime, 

 and gnawed numerous small pieces of skin off the body and 

 mantle.^ The present writer has found no better bait for this 

 species on a warm summer night than the bodies of its brethren 

 which were slain on the night preceding; it will also devour 

 dead Helix asj^eisa. Mr. Gain considers it a very dainty feeder, 

 preferring fungi to all other foods, and apparently doing no 

 harm in the garden. 



1 Zoologist, iv. p. 1504 ; iii. p. 1038 ; iii. p. 943. 



2 H. W. Kew, I. c. 3 Zoologist, xix. p. 7819. 

 4 Naturalist, 1889, p. 55. ^ H. W. Kew, I. c. 



