ARION HORTENSIS. 2s 
Reproduction and Development —The details of the congress of 
this species have never been recorded, but Mr. E. J. Lowe, who has fre- 
quently observed the act, describes it as very transitory, the actual congress, 
during which the spermatophores are exchanged, only occupying forty or 
forty-five seconds. 
he eges, which have been so frequently though erroneously described as 
phosphorescent for the first fifteen days after deposition, are subglobular in 
shape and a little over two mill. in length, semiopaque or quite translucent 
and of a milky-white colour, which, however, soon changes to a dull yellow. 
‘They are deposited throughout the milder parts of the year, on the damp 
earth, or beneath stones or other shelter, to the number of seventy or more, 
agelutinated i in several clusters by a y ellowish mucus, and are said to hatch 
in from twenty to forty days, according to the weather, the young even in 
the earliest stages being said to show the same body markings as the 
adults, and to possess a distinct keel, which is, however, readily overlooked, 
as it is not distinguished by colour, and entirely disappears during growth, 
the animal becoming full-grown and adult towards the end of the first year. 
Food and Habits.—<Arion hortensis is essentially a garden species, 
and especially partial to heavy soils, though often found far from culti- 
vated land, in fields, woods, and in damp places beneath logs and stones ; 
it is a rather active, but strictly geophilous species, seldom ascending any 
distance up the stems of trees or plants, though both young and adults can 
readily spin mucus threads to facilitate descent from elevated positions. 
It is a most destructive animal, hiding during the day beneath violets, 
strawberries, and other tufted plants, but coming out at dusk to feed, 
continuing its depredations throughout the night, and as it feeds quite 
at the base of the plants, its ravages are only discovered when too 
late : it will burrow down to the bulbs of hhes, and feed upon them the 
winter through, it also eats off the bark from chrysanthemum stems, 
devours pansy branches, and the stems of earthed-up celery. In spring 
it will leave other food to feast upon the fallen petals of the apple and 
plum blossoms, and is if possible more destructive to strawberries than 
even Agriolimax agrestis. 
According to Dr. Scharff, this species probably lives chiefly on decaying 
vegetation, as he has found it most numerous in gardens amongst heaps of 
old weeds. 
In the potato-growing district around Selby, Yorkshire, Avion hortensis 
committed great ravages among the crops during the spring of 1904, by 
feeding upon and honeycombing the “ potato- sets,” and thus causing 
a very serious blight. 
Mr. Gain found it a rather sickly species in confinement, and not so 
indiscriminate in its choice of food as might have been supposed, as out of 
193 different kinds of foods offered to a colony of the typical form, ninety- 
one were totally rejected, and only twenty-five eaten freely, but not one 
with that avidity which is so characteristic when a really favourite food is 
offered. Dr. Scharff remarks that he has never found it on fungi, but m 
confinement Mr. Gain observes that it fed readily upon Agaricus cam- 
pestris, Russula emetica, and several other species. 
Like Agriolimaa agrestis and Milax sowerbii, this species is, according 
to Mr. Reynell, strongly attracted by beer, and if this be placed in suit- 
able shallow saucers in accessible positions on the ground, the animals 
will crawl into the liquid and drown. 
