42 



LIMAX TENELLUS Miiller IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 



By J. R. B. MASEFIELD, M.A. 



(Read before the Society, November loth, 1909). 



During the week-end, i6th to i8th October, I had the pleasure of 

 staying with my friend Mr. Charles Oldham, at Watford, and he 

 kindly showed me the Hertfordshire habitat of this slug, which used 

 to be considered a rare species. We found it in some numbers 

 crawling up beech trunks, and under pieces of decaying bark. 

 Returning to Staffordshire I went on Saturday, 23rd October last, to 

 Dimminsdale, near Cheadle, where there is a number of old dead 

 and decaying beech trees, covered with Polypoms versicolor and 

 other species of fungi. Here I soon found several specimens of 

 Liviax arboruJH, L. cinereo-niger, and Arion subfuscus, and my son, Mr. 

 W. G. Masefield, on removing a loose piece of bark, revealed a slug 

 which I at once recognised as Lbnax teuellus. All the slugs we 

 found have been submitted to Mr. C. Oldham and Mr. W. Denison 

 Roebuck, and the latter kindly reports upon them as follows : — 

 Liviax tenellus var. cerea, one, a fine adult. 



,, cinereo-uiger var. luduosa, two, minute. 



„ ,, var. efasciata, several, small. 



„ arboriim, type, numerous, immature. 



„ ,, var. bettonii, one, immature. 



Arion subfusais var. cifiereo-fusca, one nearly full grown, 

 several immature. 

 The county record of Staffordshire now includes all the British slugs 

 except Testacella scutiilum and T. maugei. 



Since writing the above I again visited Dimminsdale, near Cheadle, 

 Staffs., on the 4th November, and searching with a lantern on the 

 beech trees took three more specimens of L. tenellus, which shows, I 

 think, conclusively that this slug is indigenous in this dale, but has 

 been overlooked before. Mr. Roebuck has seen and identified these 

 further specimens and also specimens of L. cinereo-nige/; L. arboruni, 

 Arion circu>nscriptus, and A. subfusais var. brimnea, taken the same 

 night. Mr. Roebuck, in returning the species, says : — ^" The con- 

 signment is interesting by its collocation of species and the only 

 likely one that is absent is A. intei-medius. L. cinereo-niger and A. 

 subfuscus are always likely to occur where L. teuellus does." 



Limax cinereo-niger Wolf in North Hampshire. — On October loth, 1909, 

 I found several immature examples of this slug feeding on fungi in the pine-woods 

 near Silchester. — Chas. Oldham {Read before the Society, November loth, 1909). 



