ScHARFF — On the Slugs of Ireland. 541 



those on the East Coast, also occur. Those from the Aran Islands were almost 

 all pitch black. 



I only found two specimens with fully developed reproductive organs in my 

 collection, and these were sent to me in August by the Rev. A. H. Delap, from 

 the Skelligs Rock, off Valentia. Thus we probably have the same period of 

 reproduction as on the East Coast, but the specimens either live for two years, or 

 for a year and a-half. The latter seems to me more probable, and we should, in 

 that case, have a second period of reproduction in the early months of spring on 

 the West Coast. 



Habitat. — This species is found everywhere in company with Agriolimax 

 agrestis, both on the mainland and many of the islands on the West Coast. In the 

 garden it is one of the commonest forms. In my own garden I have never seen 

 an adult of any other colour than a rich brown (fig. 10). Similar brown slugs I 

 have noticed as very abundant on the AVest Coast. In woods and fields near 

 Dublin I have hardly ever seen this variety. In the Dublin Mountains, at Killakee, 

 all the adult forms I obtained were of a dark claret colour ; they resembled very 

 much the fallen pine-needles that covered the ground, and it seemed to me a case 

 of protective colouring. 



On the West Coast I have collected at Cahirciveen, Derrynane Bay, and other 

 places in the Co. Kerry, and most specimens were either brown or olive-coloured — 

 sometimes of a salmon-red — and the ground being boggy, again resembled the 

 colour of the slugs. It has been remarked by many observers, and it agrees with 

 my experience, that this slug is more often seen crawling about in the daytime 

 than others. I have especially noticed this fact on the West Coast, where, of 

 course, the climate is exceedingly damp, but it struck me also in the forests of 

 Germany, where one sees so many large red-coloured A. ater. 



Food. — A. ater is undoubtedly a voracious vegetable feeder, preferring decaying 

 chlorophyllaceous plants to fresh ones. I have kept them on campanula leaves for 

 a long time. Kew (17) kept this species in captivity from May to October, during 

 which time twenty-six different substances were eaten. One slug lived on a news- 

 paper for some time. He says — " The dead bodies of Arion subfuscus, A. hor- 

 tensis, Limax maximus, L. flavus, and L. agrestis, a dead Unio, freshly turned 

 pupae of Adimonia tanaceti, a small part of the abdomen of a dragon-fly [Diplax 

 striolata), leaves of lettuce, Scahiosa succisa and Solanum nigrum, flowers of Pedi- 

 cularis sylvatica, Banunculus Jlammula, R. acris, R. repens and R. bulbosus, and the 

 lichens Evernia prunastri and Ramalina farinacea were readily fed upon. Pohj- 

 podium vulgare, Eryngium maritimum, and berries of Arum maculatimi were taken in 

 small quantities and with evident reluctance, as also was Pears' soap." 



Thompson (43) noticed two specimens of this species busily engaged devouring 

 a snail i^H. aspcrsa) which appeared to be freshly killed. 



