32 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



L. cinereo -Niger.- — This, until lately was included with the last species, 

 from which it may be distinguished by having its mantle without spots or 

 markings, its dorsal keel generally coloured of a different tint than the rest 

 of the body, and its foot on the lower surface divided up longitudinally into 

 a median white band and two dark lateral bands, one on each side. Another 

 distinctive feature is in its having the pulmonary orifice of the same colour as 

 the body, but of a darker hue. The type is blackish with a white line run- 

 ning the length of the back. One variety has been recorded as British (var. 

 nigra), which is also found in France and Italy. This is a veritable negro- 

 slug, for it is entirely black. 



III. Genus TESTACELLA. 



Testacella Haliotidea. — As I said in the first part of this article the 

 Testacella carry their shells not under their mantles as the other slugs, but 

 on the tip of their tails. They differ, too, in not being phytophagous, but 

 having for their food earthworms, and now and again a slug or two. The 

 cannibals — and the gourmands ! Mr. Lowe watched twenty-five specimens 

 eat twenty-five earthworms and twenty-five L. agrestis — an earthworm and a 

 slug apiece for a slug ! They are mole-like too in living underground, and 

 we might call them mole-slugs from this very circumstance. In the spring- 

 time, and during the autumnal months they are to be found above ground, 

 hunting no doubt after slugs to serve them as food. When laying the eggs— 

 the ovipositing time is in May, June, and July — the animal draws in her 

 tentacles, assumes a more or less globular form as if undergoing some pain, 

 and exudes one at a time, reaching in all to the number of ten or fifteen. 

 All this takes place in a subterranean gallery, and the eggs are placed sepa- 

 rate from one another, and not en masse as in the other slugs. 



The specific features of T. haliotidea are the following : — 



1. Body yellow, spotted with brown, white, or black, with the margin of 

 the foot yellow. 



2. Lips flexible, and capable of being extended, and to thus simulate a 

 third pair of tentacles. 



3. Shell one and a half-whorled, oval, ear-shaped, with a moderately thick 

 epidermis. Suture rather deep. Aperture large, rounded, and dilated in 

 front. Shell covering the mantle. Length i-f-ths inch. 



4. Body marked with a double wavy line, which commences near the apex 

 of the shell, and teminates near the head, 



The variety scutulum is yellowish, spotted with brown, and has the shell 

 more acuminate posteriorily. 



