LIMAX. 147 



posterior part, and its edges free throughout the whole circumference. Upper 

 surface of the body marked with longitudinal lines or shallow furrows, darker 

 than the general surface, sometimes black, anastomosing with each other, and 

 forming a sort of network ; between the reticulated lines are narrow, irregular 

 oblong plates, or smooth, flattened tubercles, giving the surface the appearance 

 of a mosaic work, with lines of dark cement ; reticulations less distinct on the 

 sides, and disappearing towards the base ; a prominent tubercular ridge extends 

 from between the eye-peduncles backward to the mantle, with a furrow on each 

 side. Eye-peduncles cylindrical, about one eighth the length of the body, with 

 small, black, ocular points on the superior part of the terminal bulb ; tentacles 

 immediately under, very short. Respiratory foramen near the posterior lateral 

 edge of the mantle, large, surrounded with a whitish border. Orifice of rectum 

 immediately adjacent, but a little above and anterior to the respiratory fora- 

 men. Foot narrow ; locomotive band bounded by two distinct longitudinal 

 furrows. 



Generally about 25 mill, in length, but when fully grown nearly 50 mill. 



Limax agrestis, Linn^us, Syst. Nat. [x.], 1758, I. 652. — Moquin-Tandon, 

 Reeve, etc. — Binney, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist, IV. 166 (1842) ; Terr. Moll., 

 II. 37, PI. LXIV. Fig. 2 (1851). — Leidy, Terr. Moll., I. 250, PI. II. Figs. 

 7-9 (1851), anat. — DeKay, N. Y. Moll., 20, PL I. Fig. 4 (1843). — Tryon, 

 Am. Journ. Conch., III. 315 (1868). —W. G. Binney, L. & Fr.-W. Sh. 

 N. A., I. 64 (1869). —Gould and Binney, Inv. of Mass. ed. 2, 408 (1870). 

 — Morse, Journ. Portl. Soc, I. 7, Fig. 1, PI. III. Fig. 2(1864). 



Limax tunicata, Gould, olim. Invert. 3 (1841). 



It is undoubtedly of European origin. Inhabiting Boston, New York, Phil- 

 adelphia, and other maritime cities of the Atlantic coast ; also in Greenland.^ 

 It is common in the neighborhood of Boston, under stones at roadsides, and 

 about stables and farmyards, and in other moist situations, under wet and 

 decaying pieces of wood. It is also found in cellars and gardens, and causes 

 some mischief by its depredations. A considerable number of individuals often 

 congregate in the same retreat. Their food appears to be the green leaves of 

 succulent plants, and sometimes ripe fruits ; they feed during the night, and 

 are rarely found out of their retreats in the daytime. Their growth is rapid, 

 the animal excluded from the egg in the spring arriving at full maturity and 

 producing eggs before the succeeding winter. They defend themselves from 

 injurious contact by instantly secreting, at the part touched, a quantity of 

 milky-white, glutinous mucus. They are active in their motions, and soon 

 escape when disturbed. Suspending themselves, head downwards, they lower 

 themselves from plants and fences by forming a mucus thread which they 

 attach to the point from which they hang. They are occasionally seen in this 

 situation in rainy weather. During the process of excreting the mucus thread 



1 Doubted by Morch, Am. Journ. Conch., IV. 37. 



