14 LIMACIDiE. 



tables, and their roots also, with an appetite altogether 

 disproportioned to its size. It scarcely ever exceeds an 

 inch and a half, or two inches at most, in length, and 

 is more of a spindle shape than its congeners. The 

 head is of an amber colour, or yellowish-grey, with two 

 dusky lines running outwards to the slightly dusky, and 

 rather short superior tentacles. The shield is slightly 

 emarginated in front, truncate behind, obovate-oblong, 

 concentrically wrinkled, with a large spiracle placed well 

 back. The back is rounded centrally, carinated (ob- 

 liquely) towards the acute tail ; its surface is reticulated 

 with depressed smooth wrinkles. The sides of the foot 

 are white, with a translucent edge. The sole is white. 

 The usual colour of shield and body is pale yellowish, 

 or fleshy grey, with pale dusky mottlings. Occasionally, 

 however, we meet with specimens in which the markings 

 are brown, or even nearly black, so as to give a dark 

 aspect to the whole body. The substance of this slug 

 is remarkably fatty to the feel. Its mucus is milky. 

 Remarkable peculiarities are described by Mr. Nunneley, 

 as occurring in the reproductive organs of this little slug. 

 It is the most prolific of all its tribe, producing several 

 families in a year ; and no wonder that it should be so 

 abundant, when M. Bouchard observed two individuals 

 lay no fewer than three hundred and eighty eggs ! These 

 eggs are globular and transparent. 



The shell is very small, not much exceeding three lines 

 in length, more or less tumid, convex above but not 

 beneath ; scarcely, or not at all nacreous, provided with 

 a membranaceous margin. The more symmetrical ex- 

 amples are of an oblong-quadrate figure, with rounded 

 angles, slightly broader below than above, the sides of 

 nearly equal length, the base bluntly rounded, the apicial 



