32 FOOD OF SLUGS 



of grfien_fo_od.^ The capture and eating of insects by MoUusca 

 seems very remarkable, but this story does not stand alone. 

 Mr. T. Vernon Wollaston once enclosed in a bottle at least three 

 dozen specimens of Coleoptera together with 4 Helix cantiana^ 

 5 H. hispida, and 1 H. virgata, together with an abundant sup- 

 ply of fresh leaves and grass. About a fortnight afterwards, 

 on the bottle being opened, it was found that every single speci- 

 men of the Coleoptera had been devoured by the snails.^ Amalia 

 marginata in captivity has been fed upon the larvae of Euchelia 

 jacohaeae^ eating three in two hours.^ 



Limax maximus (Fig. 19) has been seen frequently to make 

 its way into a dairy and feed on raw beef .^ Individuals kept in 



confinement are guilty of 

 cannibalism. Mr. W. A. 

 Gain kept three specimens 

 in a box together, and found 

 one of them two-thirds eaten, 

 "the tail left clean cut off, 

 reminding one of that por- 

 tion of a fish on a fishmon- 

 ger's stall." That starvation 

 did not prompt the crime 

 Fig. i^.—Limax maximus L. PO, puimo- was proved by the fact that 

 nary orifice : X f . during the preceding night 



the slug had been supplied with, and had eaten, a consid- 

 erable quantity of its favourite food. On two other occasions 

 the same observer found one of his slugs deprived of its slime 

 and a portion of its skin, and in a dying condition.* j An adult 

 L. maximus^ kept for thirty-three days in captivity with a young 

 Arion ater^ attacked it frequently, denuded it of its slime, 

 and gnawed numerous small pieces of skin off the body and 

 mantle.^ The present writer has found no better bait for this 

 species on a warm summer night than the bodies of its brethren 

 which were slain on the night preceding; it will also devour 

 dead Helix aspersa. Mr. Gain considers it a very dainty feeder, 

 preferring fungi to all other foods, and apparently doing no 

 harm in the garden. 



1 Zoologist, iv. p. 1504 ; iii. p. 1038 ; iii. p. 943. 



2 H. W. Kew, I. c. 8 Zoologist, xix. p. 7819. 

 4 Naturalist, 1889, p. 66. ^ h. W. Kew, I. c. 



