5 9 3 



Slugs and Snails. 



[JAN., 



necessary for them to incubate, but they can at times resist 

 long periods of drought. When first hatched, the young are 

 about one-twelfth of an inch long, and are then very pale and 

 soft. Some have been found to reach sexual maturity in four 

 months, but as a rule they take much longer, probably nearer a 

 year. 



The mature grey slug has an elongated, spindle-shaped body, 

 usually of a mottled, ashy-grey colour, but sometimes with a 

 dull reddish or yellowish tinge. In the spring it is often 

 paler than later in the year. The loot has pale sides. The 

 hidden shell is oval and concave on its under surface, very thin, 

 and marked with concentric lines of growth, and the edge is bor- 

 dered with a broad, membranous, striated margin. When full 

 grown this slug may reach an inch and a-half long. 



Like all slugs, its life is dependent on moisture. During hot 

 and dry weather they contract and roll up, hiding away under 

 stones, in crevices in the earth, &c, but come out at night to 

 feed. In winter, if the weather is open, they will continue to 

 feed, but in cold weather they become semi-torpid and hide 

 away in large numbers under stones, decaying logs, rubbish, &c, 

 and also in the earth. Attacks of this slug can frequently be 

 traced to neighbouring woods and shrubberies and rubbish 

 heaps. 



Vegetation of all kinds is devoured by these slugs, but they 

 prefer to feed above ground. They sometimes cause whole- 

 sale destruction to wheat, clover, turnips, cabbage, and rape, 

 the young turnips being eaten off just above the ground ; 

 recently much harm has been done in hop-gardens,* and 

 almost all garden plants, both culinary and ornamental, are 

 attacked by them. 



(2) The Black-Striped or Mottled Slug 

 (Limax maximus. Linn.). 

 This large slug is said by Simroth t and by Scharff % to feed 

 almost exclusively on non-chlorophyllaceous matter. This 

 does not agree with my own observations, for 1 have frequently 

 found it devouring whole boxes of seedling plants, and, in 



* Second Report on Economic Zoology, p. 55 (1903). F. V. Theobald. 



t 7.eit. fViss. Zoo/., p. 203, xlii. 



J Scient. Trans. Roy. Dziblin Soc, IV. (2), p. 520. 



