$2 LIMAX FLAVUS. 
The nomina! faculty is strongly exemplified in this species, and this trait 
in its character has been often abundantly verified. 
It is capable, at least when young, of spinning a mucous thread by which 
it can lower itself from branches or other places from which it may desire 
to descend. 
Parasites.— Limax flavus is particularly liable to be infested by the ecto- 
parasitic Acwrus, known as Philodromus limucum?® L., a circumstance said 
by Férussac to be due to a strong odour resembling that of decaying wood 
which emanates from it and which also similarly attracts many wood-lice. 
This species is also preyed upon, according to Whiteaves, by the larva of 
the Coleopteron Drilus flavescens. 
Variation.—T'his species, though under ordinary conditions remarkably 
constant in its coloration and character, is hable to a temporary change of 
aspect under the influence of prolonged abstinence from food or continued 
irritation. ‘lhe yellow colour of the body being wholly or in great part due 
to the slime by which the body is invested, explains this transient stability 
of the colouring in this species.* 
When living within the shelter of human habitations it is said to be 
more vividly coloured, but according to Locard does not attain to the size 
of the examples living in the open air. The brightness of its colouring be- 
comes dimmed with the loss of its active energy, prolonged irritation, and 
abstinence from food, the yellow body-tint changing to a dull olive or grey. 
In the ordinary course, these animals in most districts darken with age, 
and as a rule are darker in colour out of doors than when living under shelter. 
The chief differences are due to variations in the ground colour, and to 
the intensity and completeness of the suffusion by the darker secondary 
pigmentation, this suffusion emanating from the irregularly maculate mark- 
ings, without exhibiting any tendency to run into banding. 
Among the anomalies that have been observed, one with a well-marked 
bifurcate tail, found by Mr. C. Oldham, at Alderley Edge, in Cheshire, is 
worthy of especial mention. 
VARIATIONS IN COLOUR OF ANIMAL. 
Var. albina Taylor. ; 
ANIMAL quite white. 
Bavaria—'wo specimens from the easemates at Wurzburg, June 1876 (S. Fries, 
Zool. Anz., 1879, p. 155). 
Var. flavescens I’ér., Hist. Moll., 1819, p. 71, pl. 5, f. 
ANIMAL yellowish, with markings tatine “a 
Cornwall W.—Scilly Isles, Aug. 1890! Rev. E. Dale Roberts. 
Surrey —Cobham, specimens in British Museum, from Dr. Leach (T. D. A. Cock- 
erell, in litt.). 
Middlesex—Muswell Hill road, Highgate, June 1889! H. Wallis Kew. 
Elgin—South College, Elgin, Dec. 1890! G. Gordon. 
Belgium— Brussels and Louvain (Colbeau, Ann. Soc. Mal. Belg., 1863, p. 48). 
France--Frequent in moist and cold houses in Lyons ; rather common in vaults 
and cellars in the department of the Ain; and at Montpellier, Béziers, Lodeve, St.- 
Pons, Ganges, ete., in the Herault. 
Italy—Liguria, Tuscany, Sardinia, and Sicily (Lessona & Pollonera, Monog. 
Limac. Ital., 1882, p. 44). 
Var. rufescens Mogq.-T'and., Hist. Moll. France, 1855, p. 25. 
ANIMAL reddish, with the markings somewhat indistinct. 
Warwick—Stratford-on-Avon, Sept. 1884! R. J. Attye. Cellar, Edgbaston, 
July 1898 (Collinge, J. of Mal., Dec. 1898, p. 56). 
1 Monog. i., p. 312, f. 602. 2 Monog. i., p. 423, f. 738. 3 Monog. i., p. 327. 
