242 Keit) : On the Pairing of Limax maximum. 



while intertwined they appeared like a pear of medium size 

 hanging - from a double petiole.* 



Werlich (1819) refers to the pairing of large black slugs, 

 shown by figures to be Limaces, and supposed by Ferussac to 

 pertain to a variety of Limax rnaximus. The observations were 

 made towards six o'clock on a damp evening- in June, presumably 

 at Rudolstadt. The animals, which were on the trunk of a tree, 

 were approaching- one another in circular 

 fashion, the head of one being directed 

 towards the tail of the other ; and, as the 

 circle became narrower, the copulatory 

 organs began to appear. After a little 

 time, the tails of the animals united, and 

 their bodies turned downwards, and hang- 

 ing- freely, they coiled round one another 

 spirally. The creatures were probably 

 sustained, at this time, by a slime-cord; 

 but this is not shown in the figures. The 

 copulatory org-ans, when about an inch 

 long, suddenly approached each other and 

 intertwined, attaining at the same time 

 a length of about three inches (Fig. 1). 

 The intertwining was soon remarkably 

 intimate ; the united organs became 

 shorter and more compact, and on some 

 of the whorls, which were at last undis- 

 ting-uishable, a fringe-like border appeared 

 and exhibited extraordinary modulatory 

 movements, t 



Boch-Buschmann's observation was 

 made — presumably at Luxemburg — upon 

 unidentified slugs, shown by a figure to 

 be Limax rnaximus or a near ally : 



A la fin de l'6t& de 1851, je vis un objet fort 

 etrange suspendu a un arbre place pres d'un mur 

 de mon jardin : c'etait un enroulenient ornemental 

 digne de figurer dans les arabesques de Raphael. 

 — A un fil de cristal de 0,15 a 0,20 m. etait 

 suspendu un ellipsoi'de allonge, tourne en spirale, 



* Lister, Historiae Animalium Angliae, 1678, p. 129. Lister does not give 

 a locality ; he was living at York, however, and the observation is likely to 

 have been made in Yorkshire or Lincolnshire— if in the latter county, possibly 

 at Burwell, where Lister is known to have observed mollusca. 



f Werlich, Begattung der schwarzen Schnecken, Oken's Isis, 1819, 

 pp. 1 1 15-7. 



Naturalist, 



Fig. 1. — After Werlich, 

 Oken's Isis, 1819, PI. XIII., 

 Fig. 4. 



For convenience I have 

 drawn this fig ure from Ferus- 

 sac's copy, which, though not 

 a facsimile, faithfully repre- 

 sents Werlich's original. 



