LIMAX CINEREO-NIGER. 57 



limits of its altitudinal or latitudinal range, which retain at maturity, in a 

 more or less pronounced form, their juvenile stage of colouring. 



The variegated and banded varieties may thus be regarded as having 

 retained to adult life the youthful garb of the species, and as being the 

 intermediate stage leading to the dark unicolorous forms which are the 

 most advanced in their external colour evolution. 



Every district, however, has a local facies, which will be more or less 

 in harmony with the geographical position of the locality and the peculiari- 

 ties of the environment. Herr Goldfuss records that in Westphalia the 

 young of this species are of an uniformly dark-grey ; Dr. Simroth, writing 

 chiefly of the species as found near Leipzig, describes the very young ex- 

 amples as usually pale, washed over with carmine-red, and the sharply 

 defined main-band of the body as extending upon the shield, while Dr. 

 Boettger, presumably describing those of Frankfort, says the foot-sole in 

 the young is always trifasciate, and the body zoned with four longitudinal 

 dark bands, with the keel of a yellowish colour, but as maturity is attained 

 the body becomes wholly black, though sometimes retaining the yellow keel. 

 _ Mr. Roebuck's extensive experience of British specimens supports the 

 view that the young possess an uniformly pale foot-sole, and that the side- 

 areas are progressively invaded by the dark pigmentation as the animals 

 increase in age. 



The life term, according to Dr. Simroth, is about one year, but there is 

 little doubt that under favourable circumstances that period would be 

 greatly exceeded. 



Food. — Limacc cinereo-niger in a state of nature is considered to be a 

 great and almost exclusive feeder upon fungi and other cryptogamic plants, 

 and is recorded as greedily devouring Peziza macrocalyx, P. vesiculosa, 

 Morchella esculenta, Evernia prunastri, etc. 



Stahl records that the food of all the specimens of this species examined 

 by him in the month of June was apparently solely fungi, as the excremen- 

 titious matter was composed of partially digested hyphte and undigested 

 spores of Peziza macrocalyx. 



In captivity or under the pressure of hunger they will, however, eat bread 

 and many other kinds of food. 



Habits. — This species is less nocturnal and more active in habit than 

 Limax maximus, and is always abroad during the day in damp, moderately 

 warm weather. It frequents pine and other forests, more especially in shady 

 places, hiding beneath the bark of dead trees, or on fungus-covered stumps, 

 but is also often found under logs, or among dead leaves in the woods, and 

 other similar retreats. 



In Italy and other south European countries it lives chiefly in the moun- 

 tain forests, the darker varieties being found at the higher altitudes, while 

 the more brightly-coloured forms are restricted to lower ground; thus, the 

 var. maiira is found on Monte Mucrone, in Piedmont, at an altitude of 2,200 

 metres (about 7,200 feet), and the sub-var. nubigena reaches nearly to the 

 verge of eternal snow on Maladetta in the Pyrenees, while the brightly- 

 coloured var. dacampi has its most elevated station at Prestine, in the Valle 

 dell' Oglio, in Lombardy, at 800 metres above sea level (about 2,620 feet), 

 and the still more brilliant var. Corsica is even more restricted in its altitud- 

 inal range, its highest-known habitat in the mountains of Ligilria not 

 exceeding 700 metre's (about 2,290 feet). 



In this country this species is also chiefly found in hilly or wooded districts 

 and usually at some distance from dwelling-houses. 



