THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
371 
“Slugs are usually to be seen in damp weather, 
feeding on human excrement on the roadside; 
another favourite resort is at the mouth of old 
wells which are covered over with a door.” 
Issel in the Bollettino Malaeologico Italiano, 
1868, Anno 1, No. 1, — “Dei molliischi terrestri e 
d’acqua dolce raecolti iiell 5 Arcipelago di Malta” 
mentions a new species of slug, found by him in 
Malta, at Valletta outside of Porta Reale, resembl- 
ing the agrestis, but with the shield not striate nor 
keeled. 
This species in the “Monografia del Limacidi 
Italiani” was by Lessona and Pollonera named 
L. melitensis , but owing to the short and incom- 
plete description which Issel had given of it, it 
was by them put amongst the doubtful species; 
the more so that the only specimens collected by 
Issel had been lost before he had described it Nor 
could it be well classified, because whilst all its 
characters refered it to a Limax, the shield was 
said to be granular and in the Limaces It is never 
such. 
The doubts about this local slug so little known 
made me look very carefully for it in the locality 
where Issel said he had collected it and I suc- 
ceeded in finding several specimens, in which I 
soon observed that the shield was not granular. 
I sent these together with all the other species 
I had collected here to Prof. Polloneia of Turin, 
and he published under the title of Appunti di 
“Malacologia — Intorno ai Limacidi di Malta” in 
the “Bollettino dei Musei diZoologia, ed Anatomia 
comparata della R. University di Torino, VoL VI. 
No. 99, Aprile 1891” — a very interesting note on 
our slugs, in which besides rectifying the first 
description of the Limax melitensis , given by Issel, 
he described a new species found among those I 
had sent to him, which he very kindly named after 
me Agriolimax Garuanae. 
To Prof. Pollonera’s paper there is little to be 
added, except with regard to some details concern- 
ing the description of the last mentioned species 
and the general distribution of all our slugs; but, 
even if there had been nothing to change or to 
add to it, his note is so little known, and it is such 
an important contribution to the knowledge of 
our land molluscs that it would be worth while 
going over the subject again. 
Being sure that the opinion of such an authority 
will be duly appreciated I give Prof. Simroth’s 
opinion on our two characteristic slugs which 
afterwards I had occasion to send to him, as also 
the figures both of L. melitensis and A. Garuanae , 
- as I do not know that they have yet been figured. 
Besides the following five species of slugs, Prof. 
Pollonera says in his note that I had sent to him 
some young specimens of an Amalia which he 
thought different from our other two species, and. 
he adds that I had told him of the existence of 
another small Limax which I had not sent to him, 
I am bound to say that as to the Amalia I have 
now no doubt that it is only the so much varying 
A. gagates, and as to the Lima, ', it is only the 
young state of the L. melitensis , which when young 
by its dark colour and slender body is easily 
mistaken for a new form. 
The^lugs therefore which have been till now 
collected in our Islands are: — 
1. Limax flavus L. — Maltese-Bugharuien — 
tal-biar. 
Limax variegatus , Drag). ■ 
„ „ Mama. 
„ flavus Pollonera. 
It is nocturnal in its habits; common in summer 
at the mouth of wells, in cellars and other damp 
and dark places. 
2. Limax melitensis Less, et Pollomera.— 
Figs. 2 <x, 2 b., 2 c 
L. elongato conicus , minute et dense verrucosus , 
postice attenuatus , bremssime car hiatus pallide 
cinereus unicolor ; clypeo sub tiller cone dtrice sul- 
c.cito , postice per obtuse subangidato; cap it e albido , 
tentaculis pallide cinereis ; sole a pallida , unicob. re. 
Mucus acqueus decoloratus. 
Longit. 50-55 Mill. 
Quum in alcool mersatur animal fuscum sit et 
clypeo nigrozonato patet. ( Pollonera ). 
The living animal is of an uniform ashy colour, 
generally very pale, at the sides almost white, and 
it shows no trp.ce of any spots or zones. When 
immersed in alcohol it becomes of a brownish tint 
on its back and on the shield, the white being- 
preserved at its shield and on the shield appear 
two longitudinal lateral zones of a dark cole a. a 
Prof. Pollonera speaking of this species says 
that although the chief character mentioned by 
Issel, the granularity of the shield, failed on a 
