ScHAKFF — On the Slugs of Ireland. 549 



as if A. Bourguignati preferred to feed on the fallen fluwers whicli were partially 

 decomposed, instead of attacking the living parts of the plant. 



Gain's (10) experience is very different from, mine, for he says : " This slug ate 

 exactly one-half of the foods given, and thrives and breeds freely in confinement." 



General Distribution. — Great Britain, and continental Europe, except Spain and 

 Portugal, and Siberia (?). 



Arion intermedius, Normand. 



Limax intermedius, Normand, Descr. Lim., 1852. Arion hortensis (pars), 

 Jeffreys, Brit. Conch., 1862. Arion minimus, Simroth, ZeitscJir. wiss. Zool, 1885. 



(Plate LVI., figs. 22, 23.) 



Colour light yellow or gray, with abundant yellow slime chiefly near head and 

 caudal gland. Wrinkles with little conical spikes. Lateral bands either absent or 

 very faint. It occurs chiefly on fungi. 



Synonymy.— ^imxoih. (38) was the first to re-establish on anatomical grounds the 

 claims of this form to rank as a distinct species. Finding no satisfactory descrip- 

 tion of any species corresponding to his own, he called it Arion minimus, which name 

 I temporarily adopted in a preliminary notice sent to the Conchological Society 

 (36). Since the publication of his monograph, Simroth consulted the writings of 

 older authors, such as Mtiller (28) and Nielsson (29), but as their A. flavus seemed 

 to have been a larger slug, probably a young A. subfuscus, he thought his name 

 {A. minimus) should be retained. Gmelin (11) and Fdrussac (8) merely repeated 

 Midler's description without apparently having seen the slug. Among Moquin- 

 Tandon's (26) uncertain species, we find A. flavus again, and there is no doubt 

 that the author of the " Mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles de France " really had 

 specimens of our slug before him, which he believed was the same as that referred 

 to by Muller, Gmelin, and Fdrussac. But as Pollonera (32) has pointed out, the 

 priority rests with another French author, viz. Normand (30), who described the 

 same species under the name of A. intermedius three years before him. 



External Characters. — This is the smallest of our Arions, and the only one 

 besides A. ater which when at rest assumes the peculiar arched position (fig. 23). 

 When examined in that attitude with a pocket lens we find that the wrinkles pro- 

 ject in the shape of little conical knobs, and these give the slug that glittering 

 appearance by which it is easily recognized from the other species. 



The colour of A. intermedius is almost always white, or sometimes light gray, 

 but owing to an abundant yellow mucus it often appears canary-yellow, especially 

 near the caudal gland. The foot also is yellow, due to the same cause. The head 

 and tentacles are dark gray. 



