THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



11 



an old but accurate observer—watched two slugs of this species lay no less 

 than 380 eggs at one time, and he tells us that they commence laying when 

 at the age of sixty-six days although they do not arrive at adulthood until the 

 ninety-second day ; and they have three or four broods — perhaps more — in the 

 year. Let a mathematical reader compute how many children and childrens* 

 children one of these slugs would have in the course of a life-time of three 

 years and he will be confounded at the numbers. But as with every other 

 pest, nature holds a compensation in the ravenous appetites of moles, birds, 

 and frogs which devour them in an astonishing quantity, and even these 

 creatures do not seem enough keep to them within due bounds, for a French- 

 man, M. Laurent, has shown that sometimes a fungus is developed within 

 the eggs before they are exuded from the body of their parent. 

 The characteristics of Limax agrestis are the following : — 



1. Body whitish, rufous-brown, or cream-coloured mottled with spots of 



a deeper hue (the type is greyish -white with au ashy mantle.) 



2. Tentacles dusky-grey. 



3. Mantle concentrically striated — best seen when the animal is resting — 



and rounded in front and behind. 



4. Foot narrow, creamy-white or pale grey in colour. 



5. Slime milk-white, copious in quantity, and when dry leaving a thick 



white film. 



6. Shell (under the mantle) oval with a membranaceous margin and with 



nucleus placed slightly to one side or excentrically. 



7. Length \ — \ \ inches. 



The varieties are many, but the commonest is the greyish- mottled one, 

 which is called var. sylvatica. Others are v. reticulata, body reddish with 

 black spots placed irregularly; v. nigra, entirely black; v. albida, greyish- 

 white without spots ; v. lilacina, lilac, spotless ; v. tristis, brownish, with 

 two lateral brown bands on the mantle ; v. punctata, greyish or white in 

 colour, spotted with small black points or dots, and a variety which came to 

 me from the Midlands and which I have described under the name of v. 

 submaculata. My original description of this last runs thus : — Body greyish- 

 white, streaked with seal-brown on the back, which extends into the mantle 

 and covers its posterior two-thirds ; the sides of the body and anterior third 

 of the mantle free from streaks and spotted with black. 



Limax agrestis has a wide range of distribution extending all over the 

 European continent, Siberia, the United States, Canada, and Northern Africa. 



Limax Ljevis. — This does not seem to be as common as L. flavus and 

 £. agrestis, and it has no described varieties indigenous to this country. It 

 is an active little creature, and although a slug is by no means sluggish in 



