LIMACID^. 233 



waves dash over it. It is found in Lantivet Bay, measures 

 about half an inch, and has a thick tuberculated coat cover- 

 ing its body. The breathing-hole is placed at the hinder 

 part of the animal. 



The Limacidce, or true land or air-breathing slugs, con- 

 sist of the genera Limax, Ario7i, and Geomalacus. They are 

 long, fleshy animals, which have a short mantle, or shield, 

 covering the front part of their bodies, and sometimes con- 

 cealing a rudimentary shell. They have a head capable of 

 being drawn back or shrunk into the body, and having four 

 horns or tentacles, two of which have eyes at their tips. 

 The shield, or mantle, covers the respiratory cavity, the 

 outer opening of which is seen at one side of it. Few crea- 

 tures have so great a power of contraction, and assuming a 

 different form when at rest to what it bears when crawling 

 at full length. In the former state it forms a short arched 

 body, resting on a flat disc, and guarded in front by the 

 shield. In the latter, it stretches out to a long, serpent-hke 

 form, three or four times as long, and glides over the ground, 

 leaving a slimy trail behind it. 



The large black fellow, sometimes called the Horse-leach, 

 so often seen in the open fields, has been named Aeion ater. 

 A variety of the same species occurs in the woods, of a 



