LIMAX MAXIMUS. ce 
Dr. Scharff has also indicated a ready method of discrimination to be by 
touching the front of the mantle, which the animal at once raises up and 
almost inverts. This peculiar action does not occur with L. marginatus, 
in which the mantle is more intimately united with the body. 
Description.—ANIMAL with a long and slender BODY, tapering towards the tail, 
and varying in length from 100 to 150 mill., but occasionally reaching to even 200 
mill. ; usually of a yellowish-grey or cinereous ground colour, variously banded or 
maculated with black, but sometimes unicolorous ; BODY rounded, but keeled towards 
the caudal end, with about forty-eight longitudinal rows of elongate, detached 
tubercles; NECK pale, with two conspicuous DORSAL FURROWS enclosing a single 
row of elongate tubercles and terminating in front as the FACIAL GROOVES ; SOLE 
uniformly pale; FOOT-FRINGE pale with a row of minute submarginal blackish 
tubercles ; TENTACLES very long and slender ; SHIELD oblong, about one-third the 
total length of the animal, rounded in front, angular behind, and forming an angle 
of about 80 deg. when in motion, usually of a similar tint to the body, but boldly 
marbled or maculate with black, somewhat concentrically and interruptedly ridged 
around a sub-posterior nucleus. Mucus colourless and iridescent, not very adhe- 
sive, and less plentiful than in L. flavus or L. marginatus. 
SHELL placed beneath the hinder part of the shield 
and perceptible through the skin, oblong-oval, thin, of a iF 
whitish colour, slightly convex above, and correspondingly 
concave beneath, with a membranous margin; APEX or 
nucleus at the posterior margin but inclined towards the 
left side, and forming the apophysis by which the shell is TG oo Tecesmerteneltee 
organically attached to the animal. Length, 13 mill.; | zinax maximus L., X 1}. 
breadth, 7 mill. Christchurch, Hants. 
INTERNALLY, the NERVOUS SYSTEM is composed of the typical ganglia; the pedal 
vanglia are placed beneath the radula sac and joined together by an anterior and 
a posterior commissure; the abdominal ganglion lies a little to the right of the 
median line; the visceral ganglia occupy the angle between the lingual sheath 
and the cesophagus, and the buccal ganglia are widely separated but joined together 
by a commissure nearly as thick as the ganglia themselves. 
The OLFACTORY SENSE is chiefly lodged in the tentacles, yet according to Simroth 
there are within the mantle chamber well-marked vestiges of the primitive smelling- 
organ or OSPHRADIUM in the form of a simple yellowish ridge furnished with a 
double fringe of nerves and placed to the left of the anal aperture. 
Th@ REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS are simple; the 
OVOTESTIS or hermaphrodite gland on left upper 
side of liver, is very large, narrowly linguiform, 
many lobed, with very small, rounded, darkly 
pigmented follicles; DucT long, slender, and 
straight above, thickened and sinuous below, 
usually white; ALBUMEN GLAND large lobed, of 
an amber colour and placed on right side along 
the crop; OVISPERMATODUCT long and com- 
paratively narrow, only slightly connected to- 
gether in the lower half and sometimes naturally 
disjunct, resembling Limax flavus in this re- 
spect ; OVIDUCT portion puckered into short, 
rounded segments ; SPERM-DUCT thick, cream- 
white, most conspicuous below; FREE-OVIDUCT 
short, the lower thickened part furnished intern- 
ally with annular glands ; SPERMATHECA club- 
shaped, blotched with opaque-white and amber, 
its crown fixed by muscular threads to ovisperma- 
toduct, its stem short, Joining free oviduct at its 
very base ; PENIS-SHEATH long, upper half opaque- 
white, thickened and rigidly convoluted, lower 
half narrow, semi-transparent white, tinged with 
Fic. 53.—Sexual organs of Limax 
maximus L. 
bluish or brownish near external orifice, and fur- (Beverley, Yorks., Mr. J. D. Butterell). 
nished with a crest interiorly, which is most pro- aib.g. albumen gland ; ov. oviduct ; of. 
; , : Cie ae EO ieee, MEE De Ce ovotestis ; f.s. penis sheath 5 7.72. retrac- 
nounced at the upper end, its retractor, which is ¢4- muscle; sp. spermatheca; v.d. vas 
the chief cause of the spiral twisting of the penis deferens. 
when protruded, is a stout band arising from left side of root of columella retractor, 
and attached terminally to penis-sheath ; VAS DEFERENS enters close to retractor. 
