THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 263 



cannot say that I have verified it in England. On first 

 emergence they are white or colourless, but in a very short 

 time they are covered with a black, brown, or olive-coloured 

 jelly, of offensive scent and disgusting appearance. Although 

 Peck, Say, Harris, Bethune and others in America, De Geer, 

 Reaumur, Bouche, Harlig and many others on the continent 

 of Europe, and Mr. Westvvood in England, have written on 

 this loathsome grub, and although I have read their observa- 

 tions with the attention they merit, I cannot say that I 

 thoroughly understand the mode in which this jelly or 

 mucilage is produced : it accumulates on the surface of the 

 skin, until the creature becomes a dark mass without appa- 

 rent life, or even organisation. The slugs are first observable 

 at the beginning of July, — then of course very small ; and a 

 succession continues to make its appearance, and to infest 

 the leaves of sloe, pear, cherry or service, throughout August 

 and September, and often far into October. They glide with 

 extreme slowness over the surface of the leaf, and partly by 

 means of claspers, a pair of which are attached to the under 

 side of every segment, except the 1st, 4th, and 13th. These 

 claspers seem to possess little of that prehensile property 

 which is so striking a character of the claspers of the cater- 

 ])illars of moths and butterflies. In addition to the claspers, 

 fourteen in number, which are situated on the under side of 

 the abdomen, there are six articulated or thoracic legs. 

 These, as well as the head, are invisible, except when the 

 creature is crawling or feeding; indeed, these so-called 

 organs of locomotion are concealed by the body and its 

 concomitant slime or jelly, and their office seems to devolve 

 on the annular segments of the body, which, by alternate 

 dilation and contraction, effect the desired object. This 

 phenomenon is observable in the larva) of many other insects, 

 particularly in those which are apparently apod, such as the 

 maggots of flies and some Curculionidse, The body is some- 

 what swollen at the anterior extremity, and gradually 

 attenuated towards the posterior, which is slightly raised, — a 

 character frequently observable in this family of insects, as 

 well as in the cuspidate Lepidoptera. During the greater 

 part of their larval existence, these slug-worms seem quite 

 destitute of that rambling propensity which is commonly 

 observable in the larva) of Lepidoptera; indeed, in them, 



