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A FEW NOTES ON THE 

 FOOD AND HABITS OF SLUGS AND SNAILS. 



W. A. GAIN, M.C.S., 



Tiixford near Newark, Nottinghamshire. 



At present I am feeding a number of colonies of slugs and snails, 

 taking notes of their food and habits, and I have noted a few rather 

 interesting facts. 



I find Amalia gagates takes eighty-three per cent, of the different 

 kinds of food offered. This is nearly equalled by A. marginata. 

 A. gagates is very hardy, breeds freely in confinement, and lives buried 

 in the earth except when feeding. One would expect this slug to be 

 plentiful and universally distributed, but such is not the case. 



Limax arborum refuses foliage of all kinds ; it will eat the stalks 

 of lettuce and cabbage but not the leaves ; these, with the exception 

 of cooked potatoes and onions, are the only foods I have yet succeeded 

 in getting it to take. As it refuses the mosses, lichens, and fungi 

 growing on wood, as well as insects, I am at a loss to account for its 

 habit of ascending trees. 



Limax fiavus takes the foliage of holly only; its chief food appears 

 to be fungi ; it also eats the stalks of cabbage and lettuce, potato 

 (tubers) raw and cooked, turnips white and swede, and other roots, 

 and fruits ; cream is decidedly its favourite food, which it will get if 

 not well protected in the cellars which it frequents. It is said to 

 eat meat, but this appears to be a mistake. 



Since writing the above, my examples of this species have 

 developed a liking for foliage in a small degree, having taken, during 

 the last three weeks, bean, bryony {Bryonia dioica), Campanula 

 latifolia, two species of spurge, pea, and the common ragwort. 



Limax maximus is a very dainty feeder, preferring fungi to all 

 other foods, and seems to be harmless in the garden. Cannibalism 

 occurred with this species. I found one of my three examples two- 

 thirds eaten, the tail left clean cut off, reminding one of that portion 

 of a fish on a fishmonger's stall ; that this was not through starvation 

 was proved by the fact that during the night a large meal of Boletus 

 edulis had been eaten, some part of which remained ; on two other 

 occasions I have found the unfortunate third slug, deprived of its 

 slime and a portion of its skin, in a dying condition. 



Limax agrestis took forty-seven per cent, of the articles of food 

 offered, a much less proportion than I expected. 



Feb. 1889. 



