AGRIOLIMAX L7EVIS. 125 



It is also very pugnacious and aggressive, pulling off and devouring the 

 slime from the bodies of the larger species, or withdrawing its tentacles and 

 butting violently with its head against their bodies, at the same time pro- 

 truding and rasping with the odontophore. 



When these attacks, which may be twice or thrice repeated, take place, 

 the slug assaulted usually shrinks, momentarily withdraws the head 

 beneath the mantle, and then crawls hastily away; sometimes, however, 

 the injured animal turns to repel the aggressor, which then, according to 

 Mr. Kew, makes off with all speed, raising its tail and shaking it from 

 side to side, and possibly striking therewith the head or tentacles of the 

 pursuer, which, being thus temporarily disconcerted, enables the agile 

 aggressor to escape more readily. 



The favourite food of this species has not yet been discovered; Mr. Gain, 

 who had many individuals under close observation for a long period, states 

 that of the seventy-nine different kinds of food offered to it, although 

 none were devoured with zest, thirteen were eaten more or less freely ; of 

 these, six were cultivated plants, the remaining seven being the foxglove, 

 fleabane, crosswort, wallflower, red-robin, sow-thistle, and the fungus 

 Polypnrus squamosus. 



Dumont & Mortillet allude to its fondness for animal matter, in pointing 

 out that it may be procured by spreading bones in suitable spots, when 

 the slugs can be readily found beneath them, devouring the gelatine 

 softened by the moisture. 



Herr Clessin has observed it in a state of nature feeding upon the pollen 

 of the ox-eye daisy {Chrysantliemum Uuccmthemmn), and Magnus records 

 that the fertilization of that plant, during cold and damp weather, when 

 insects are not abroad, has been actually brought about by A. Iwvis crawl- 

 ing over the flowers. 



Although it is said in Germany also to frequent dry situations, A. Iwvis 

 in this country is confined to the vicinity of water, and is almost invariably 

 in company with Zonitoides nitida. Even when submerged by rising water 

 A. Iwvis does not appear to be disturbed, as it has often been found resting 

 immobile and unconcerned for several hours on the underside of logs, etc., 

 quite immersed in the water. 



Mr. F. J. Partridge at suitable times has found it living in company with 

 Succinea oblonga in hollows of the sandhills at Braunton Burrows, which, 

 though filled with water in winter and in wet weather, are in summer during 

 the day nothing but a mass of hot dry sand. 



During the day it is usually concealed in crevices, or beneath the dense 

 tufts of Marchantia polymorpha, Sphagnum, and especially amongst the 

 moss Hypnum cuspidatum, or may be found in the hollow stems of the 

 Umbelliferse growing in marshy places. When suspended in the aquarium 

 A. campestris will, according to Mr. Latchford, at once descend to the 

 bottom of the tank by means of a mucus cable, crawl with retracted ten- 

 tacles towards the sides, which it ascends, opening the respiratory orifice 

 upon reaching the surface. 



A. Imvis is an adept in forming slime-threads, and has been observed to 

 form a mucus-thread, eight inches in length, in less than three minutes. 

 M. Normand records that L. parvulus, which is synonymous with the 

 present species, spun a filament over two yards in length. 



Fossil. — According to Kennard & Woodward, A. Iwvis is known as a 

 Pleistocene fossil from the deposits at Swalecliffe, about a mile west of 

 Heme Bay, East Kent ; it was also found in Middlesex, in the section dis- 



