ROEBUCK : RE-ESTABLISHMENT OB" LIMAX TENELLUS. I07 



are covered with decayed pine-needles and other rotten vegetation, 

 amongst which the slugs are concealed. Several examples were found 

 under stones. Its ordinary companions are Limax arborum (speci- 

 mens of which sent to me were of the montane form, sub-var. 

 alpestris, and also of the type-form, somewhat dark) and also Limax 

 cinereo-niger in its varieties niaura and luciuosa, as well as Arion 

 subfiiscus and A. minimus^ but L. tenellus outnumbers them all. 



In general appearance the bulk of the specimens, those referable 

 to var. cerea^ have a decided waxy-yellow appearance in general, 

 caused by the colour of the body-slime. The pedal or locomotory- 

 slime is clear. In some cases, perhaps in most, the specimens are 

 more or less faintly banded. 



On the 3rd of September I sent an example to Mr. William Evans, 

 F.R.S.E., of Edinburgh, which reached him just as he was setting off 

 for the Forest, in Clackmannanshire. He made search there, and at 

 once found several specimens, three of which I have seen and are 

 referable to var. cerea. They were found under rotten branches and 

 chips of wood and pieces of bark lying on the ground in the fir woods, 

 and one on a fungus^a species of Rtissula. Its companions in 

 this case were about a similar number of Arion subfiiscus and one 

 A. vii?iiinus. 



On the 8th of September I received a collection of various slugs 

 from Mr. Charles Mcintosh, who had collected them on the 6th, 

 about Inver, near Dunkeld, which is in the vice-county of Mid-Perth, 

 which included various species of Arion and Limax, and — to my 

 great gratification — a characteristic and unmistakable example of 

 L. tenellus var. cerea. 



On the 24th of September I received a similar mixed collection of 

 slugs from Mr. George Sim, A.L.S., of Aberdeen, who had collected 

 them the previous day at Invercannie, near Banchory, Kincardineshire, 

 in which I was pleased to find a fine example of the var. cerea. 



It is particularly satisfactory that the first record should be so 

 promptly confirmed by similar ones from three quite different localities 

 and counties, and we may now look confidently forward to hearing of 

 others, in England as well as Scotland. 



The species is an unmistakable one when carefully examined, owing 

 to its yellow body-slime, its black tentacles, and the very black and 

 broad parallel retractor-muscles seen on the neck. It cannot be 

 confounded with any other Limax ; the only slug it can be really 

 mistaken for in the field is Arion sub/uscus, which it resembles some- 

 what in outward aspect, in the same manner as Limax cinereo- 

 niger in its completely black form, var. maura, is passed by as Arion 

 ater by field observers who do not look sufficiently closely for the 

 generic distinction. 



