Rev. B. J. Clarke on Irish species of the genus Limax. 337 



cut or eaten, and on which trees they were very common/' My 

 own observations would lead me to dissent from the conclusion 

 here come to by iM. Bouchard, as I have frequently observed 

 them on yoimg and healthy beech trees which did not exhibit the 

 least appearance of decay, and where they concealed themsekes 

 dm-ing the daytime in those natural crevices peculiar to the bark 

 of the beech. I have observed them also in moist weather as- 

 cending to, or descending from the top branches, to which the 

 foliage was conlined. Though found imder the moss on the 

 trunks of trees, their being there is only, as I conceive, for the 

 pm'pose of concealment, not for that of procuring food. 



" This slug," continues M. Bouchard, " multiplies very slowly ; 

 it lays twenty or thirty eggs under the bark, or in the holes of 

 old trees, between the mouths of September and December; their 

 eggs are isolated, oval, rounded at the extremity, and hatched to- 

 ward the twenty-fifth day from their being laid. The young are 

 full-gro^^^l toward the end of the first year ; they are then from 



9 to 10 centimetres* in length, 10 miUimetresf in height, 8 to 



10 millimetres in breadth, and their foot from 5 to 6 millimetres 

 in width." 



I have seldom found this slug elsewhere than on trees, or 

 where there was no moss on the stems, under stones lying near 

 the roots ; a singidar exception to this, their general habit, oc- 

 curred to me during the present summer in Connemara, where, 

 in an old ruinous chapel near Remyle, far apart from any tree, 

 I found this slug crawling about among the tombstones within 

 the walls in considerable numbers. 



This species is by no means uncommon in Ireland, and appears 

 to be, as far as my observations extend, \\'idely distributed over 

 the island. 1 feel confident that when the attention of natm-al- 

 ists is once di'awn to the species, it will be foimd generally 

 throughout the wooded parts of Great Britain and Ireland. 



Mr. Thompson of Belfast informs me, on sending him living 

 specimens, that it has occurred to him in the north of Ireland, 

 and he has seen it in nujnbers on the stems of trees after rain, 

 but has hitherto looked upon it as a variety of L. flatus. 



Mr. Alder of Newcastle, to whom I sent a dra^\ing of the ani- 

 mal, observes in reply, that " he thinks he has observed a slug 

 very hke it in some parts of the countiy, and which he took for 

 a variety of L. cinereus." 



The localities in which I have met wdth it are as follows : — 

 Queen's county, Spire Hill Wood and Emo Park: — Co. Galway, 

 Monivea Wood, woods near Dunmore, Tu^am Palace demesne, 

 at RemTle in the ruins of a chapel. The Dunmore specimens 



* = 0-393 inch. f = 0-039 inch. 



Ann. ^^• Mng. N. Hist. Vol. xii. 2 A 



