THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. XVII.l AUGUST, 1893. [No. 200, 



ON the MANNER of FEEDING in TESTACELLA SCUTULUM. 



By Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S. 



Demonstrator in Biology to the Essex County Council. 



Plate I. 



The members of the genus Testacella rank among the most 

 highly specialized forms that come under the heading of pul- 

 monate gastropoda, and the two most interesting and at the same 

 time most important conditions of life to which their specializa- 

 tion adapts these slugs, are an underground habitat, and a dietary 

 of earthworms. 



A body tapering from behind forwards assists the passage of 

 the creature through the soil, and a very small shell protects the 

 heart, kidneys, and breathing-chamber, which are situated at the 

 extreme end posteriorly, while the fact that the main part of 

 the animal lies in front of the shell, being the morphological 

 equivalent of the anterior and retractile portion in Limax and 

 Helix, gives considerable play to the greatly developed muscles 

 of the alimentary system which are concerned in seizing and 

 swallowing a living prey. 



Most authors dismiss Testacella with the mere mention of its 

 carnivorous propensities and nocturnal habits, while others give 

 more or less discursive and varying accounts of the way in which 

 it feeds. The object of this paper is to record the results of 

 some experiments recently made by the present writer, which 

 though not tending to confirm some of the poetical statements 



ZOOLOGIST.— AUGUST, 1893. Z 



