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Garden Slug

Arion hortensis

Summary 4

Arion hortensis, common name the "garden slug", "small striped slug" or "black field slug" is a species of small air-breathing land slug, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Arionidae, the roundback slugs.

Morphology 5

External: Contracted body semicircular in cross-section; dark gray, bluish gray, dark brown or black body, with yellow-brown dots; dark longitudinal line with fuzzy lower edge on each side; sides paler than dorsum; black head and tentacles; fine wrinkles on dorsum; yellow to orange sole; yellow-orange body mucus (Quick 1960; Kerney & Cameron 1979; Wiktor 1983; Herbert 2010).

Internal: Dark ovotestes, yellow-white hermaphrodite duct, light pink-brown spermoviduct, yellow lower atrium with outer glandular layer; long, thin oviduct widens at base; rounded spermatheca with a short, thick duct with a widened base; spermatophore 5-6.5 mm long, variable in shape, and with a hook on its posterior end (Quick 1960).

Eggs: 2.5 x 2 mm, opaque yellow, sticky clusters to 30 eggs (Quick 1960).

Juveniles: 4-5 mm long at hatching, with darker dorsum and mantle than adults (Quick 1960); blue-black body and yellow sole (Wiktor 1983).

Size 6

25-30 mm long extended (Herbert 2010).

Habitat 7

This slug lives in gardens, fields, pastures and similar habitat.

Distribution 8

occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Christophe Quintin, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/34878947@N04/7103400671/
  2. (c) Sami, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Sami
  3. (c) Aiwok, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Arion_hortensis_1.ext.jpg
  4. Adapted by Ken-ichi Ueda from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arion_hortensis
  5. Adapted by Ken-ichi Ueda from a work by (c) Paustian, Megan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/17764935
  6. Adapted by Ken-ichi Ueda from a work by (c) Paustian, Megan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/12095860
  7. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arion_hortensis
  8. Adapted by Ken-ichi Ueda from a work by (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28914779

More Info

iNat Map

Establishment introduced
Slug or snail slug
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