52 



HABITS OF CARNIVOROUS SNAILS AND SLUGS 



is decidedly averse to too much moisture, and under such cir- 

 cumstances it has even been noticed ^ in considerable numbers 

 crawling over a low wall. In the spring and autumn months, 

 according to Lacaze-Duthiers,^ it comes to the surface at night, 

 hiding itself under stones and debris during the day. Earth- 

 worms are, at these periods, nearer the surface, and the Testacella 

 has been seen creeping down into their burrows. The author 

 has taken T. Maugei abundantly under clumps of the common 

 white pink in very wet weather, lying in a sort of open nest in 

 the moist earth. On the other hand, when the earth is baked 

 dry by continued drought, they either bury themselves deeper, 

 sometimes at a depth of 3 feet, in the ground, or else become 

 encysted in a capsule of hardened mucus to prevent evaporation 

 from the skin. When first taken from the earth and placed in 

 a box, the Testacella invariably resents its capture by spitting up 

 the contents of its stomach in the shape of long fragments of 

 half-digested worms. 



It appears not to bite the worm up before swallowing it, but 

 contrives, in the most remarkable manner, to take down whole 



Fig. 20. — Testacella haliotidea Drap., protruding its pharynx {ph) and radula {r) ; 

 oe, oesophagus; p.o, pulmonary orifice; sh, shell; t, tentacles (after Lacaze- 

 Duthiers) . 



worms apparently much too large for its stomach. Mr. Butterell 

 relates ^ that, after teasing a specimen of T. Maugei^ and making 

 it emit a quantity of frothy mucus from the respiratory aperture, 

 he procured a worm of about three inches long, and rubbed the 

 worm gently across the head of the Testacella. The tongue was 

 rapidly extended, and the victim seized. The odontophore was 

 then withdrawn, carrying with it the struggling worm, which 

 made every effort to escape, but in vain ; in about five minutes 

 all had disappeared except the head, which was rejected. This 

 protrusion of the tongue (radula) and indeed of the whole 



1 Zoologist, 1887, p. 29. '^ Arch. Zool. Exp. Gen. (2) v. p. 459 f. 



8 Journ. of Conch, ill. p. 277 ; compare W. M. Webb, Zoologist, 1893, p. 281. 



