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Post by Robert Nordsieck on Jun 4, 2011 22:49:04 GMT
Good evening, I have a new page to present: This time a twopartite page about round back slugs (Arionidae). www.weichtiere.at/english/gastropoda/terrestrial/arionidae.html(No fullstop this time). It's not all of the species on it, but selected ones, some very common and some rather rare. Usually I write with an emphasis on Central European snails, but this group appears almost everywhere because the species have been widely introduced, the best pictures I received from the states. Also a relative apparently are the jumping slugs and the West coast banana slug. They do look different from our species! Possibly there will have to be a part three. Regards Robert
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Post by brunni on Jun 5, 2011 1:55:19 GMT
Hi Robert
When I am in Austria, I live out of the city in an area of farms and within 100m. of lovely forest areas. During periods of relative warm weather and prolonged heavy rain ( as we had this last week ) my garden get inundated by hundreds of giant red slugs. It seems they descend from the forest into the valley. If people think they could possibly be endangered in Austria they should some out here and load up a few hundred kilos and distribute them elsewhere.
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Post by Robert Nordsieck on Jun 5, 2011 8:56:38 GMT
Hi brunni,
the point is: Those were not giant red slugs (except they were probably red), those were Lusitanian slugs (Arion vulgaris, formerly known as Arion lusitanicus).
And because those replace the red slugs, those have become quite rare. And its also quite difficult to say which is which without dissecting them and without juveniles to look at.
There may be places (like probably Britain) where the indigenous large slug species still are quite frequent, but I am afraid in Central Europe those are all but gone and what you usually find and all people hate, might most often be a "lusi", as Mrs Falkner would say...
Kind regards Robert
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coyote
Archachatina papyracea
Cochleas ego amo
Posts: 2,955
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Post by coyote on Jun 6, 2011 3:32:57 GMT
Thanks for the link, Robert; great information, as always.
It is a very interesting coincidence that Mr Coyote and I took a walk in the woods today and saw several three-band garden slugs (Limax valentianus) during our walk. In such woods (redwood forest and mixed evergreen forest) one usually finds banana slugs, but we saw none today. I've only seen L. valentianus in suburban yards before, never in the woods, so it was an unusual sighting.
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Post by Robert Nordsieck on Jun 6, 2011 21:35:01 GMT
Hi,
I will ask you about this again, because Lehmannia (!) valentiana also is not mentioned on my homepage, but Lehmannia marginata is, because I once encountered it on an excursion.
Anyway, Lehmannia valentiana, of course, is no round back slug, but a keel back slug (Limacidae), like the leopard slug with the interesting mating habits.
Ariolimax columbianus, on the other hand, is a round back slug. I was only able to mention the "exotic" genera of Arionidae on that page, so Ariolimax is a round back slug and so is Hemphillia, the jumping slug. I personally had always been of the opinion that Ariolimax looks more like a rather corpulent Limax than an Arion, but the morphology says otherwise, apparently.
But Lehmannia valentiana is one of the many slugs from Europe introduced to the US, like you mentioned in another post. As I have no book about American slugs, I cannot say exactly where they live, but I do know there are many species of introduced slugs in the US (and in Australia). That might be because of the food transports from the Mediterranean and the general globalization of transports...
Kind regards Robert
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coyote
Archachatina papyracea
Cochleas ego amo
Posts: 2,955
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Post by coyote on Jun 6, 2011 22:02:29 GMT
Not only food transports, but horticultural shipments as well. All such shipments are inspected before being allowed into the US, but of course some things slip through anyway because the inspection process is not perfect.
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Post by Robert Nordsieck on Jun 7, 2011 8:17:46 GMT
Yes, like earth with eggs in it. How are they supposed to find those?
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