Discover Top Posts Tagged with #limacology

Banana slug!

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California. Oct. 2020

#banana slug #slug #california #redwoods #state park #prairie creek redwoods state park #travel #wildlife #wildlife photography #original photography #photographers on tumblr #photography #landscape #lensblr #limacology #Malacology #wanderingjana

Earshell Slug (Testacella haliotidea)

Family: Testacella Family (Testacellidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

All slugs are believed to have descended from shelled snail-like ancestors, and are thought to have lost their tough external shells in exchange for greater manoeuvrability and flexibility. However, a handful of species of slugs still retain small external shells, and the Earshell Slug (which possesses a tiny abalone-shaped shell on the "tail tip" at the end of its body) is one such species. That being said, it is unclear what purpose, if any, such a tiny shell serves; it is plausible that it is a vestigial characteristic that has no function, although it has been suggested that it may serve some purpose in allowing the slug to retain moisture when exposed to sunlight, or that it may provide some minor protection from predators (notably, when threatened Earshell Slugs will retract their tentacles and "curl" their large bodies up into a small compact oval, in which state they may be slightly better protected.) Native to much of western Europe and also present in New Zealand, Australia and North America as an invasive species, Earshell Slugs are believed to be fairly common throughout their range but are very rarely seen due to their unusual lifestyle; they are specialised predators that feed exclusively on earthworms, and as such spend the vast majority of their lives underground or amongst dense leaf litter searching for prey, coming to the surface only when soil compaction caused by heavy rain forces them to do so. While the subterranean lifestyle of this species means that much of its lifecycle is a mystery, it is known that (like most terrestrial gastropods,) members of this species are hermaphrodites (producing both sperm and ova,) and based on the anatomy of their reproductive organs it is possible that they are able to reproduce asexually by fertilizing their own eggs.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/232389-Testacella-haliotidea

#Earshell Slug #slug #slugs #shelled slugs #zoology #biology #malacology #limacology #animal #animals #wildlife #European wildlife #gastropod #gastropods #mollusc #molluscs #invertebrate #invertebrates

some slugs and snails i've seen around van isle.

Chocolate Arion | Arion rufus

Ater-group | Arion subg. Arion (?)

Yellow Bordered Taildropper | Prophysaon foliolatum

Pacific Banana Slug | Ariolimax columbianus

Draparnaud's Glass Snail | Oxychilus draparnaudi

Brown-lipped Snail | Cepaea nemoralis

i don't mind getting my hands slimy from holding these lovely lads

#slugs #snails #limacology #malacology #van isle #vancouver island #british columbia #fern's things #inaturalist #gastropods #molluscs #fern's pics #bc

How to keep slugs and snails off my doorstep without hurting them, I keep stepping on them and it makes me very sad thanks

#slugs #snails #limacology #entomology #bugs #bees #help

Grove Snail (Cepaea nemoralis)

Family: Helix Snail Family (Helicidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

Also known as the Brown-Lipped Snail, the Grove Snail is native to northern, western and central Europe, and is among the most common gastropods in its range. It inhabits a wide range of habitats (including forests, grasslands, sand dunes, farmlands and gardens) and is able to survive in significantly colder climates than many other snails by entering a hibernation-like state when faced with low temperatures or seasonal scarcities of food. Grove Snails are primarily herbivorous and feed on dead or dying plants, and as they rarely eat healthy plants they do not typically cause trouble for farmers and gardeners as other herbivorous gastropods often do. Like almost all terrestrial snails, Grove Snails are hermaphrodites (meaning that every individual is capable of producing both sperm and ova) and cannot self-fertilize, meaning they must mate in order to reproduce. During the mating season, which lasts throughout most of the summer and early autumn/fall, any two adult Grove Snails that encounter one another will engage in a half-courtship-half-battle behavior, attempting to stab hormone-laced darts made of calcium carbonate (known as “love darts”) into their mate/opponent - whichever individual is hit by a love dart first will begin to produce a chemical that makes their reproductive tract more hospitable for sperm and will then have their eggs fertilized by the snail that hit them. When mating both individuals would prefer to fertilize their mate’s eggs as the process of developing and laying fertilized eggs requires far more nutrients than it takes to fertilize eggs, but it is entirely possible for a single Grove Snail to essentially become both a mother and a father throughout its life. The eggs of a Grove Snail, which are white and spherical, are laid in clutches of 30-50 and hatch after around 15-20 days, with newly hatched individuals taking up to 3 years to reach maturity. The colours and patterns on the shells of this species vary enormously between individuals (with yellow with black stripes, pure yellow, pale white, yellow with brown stripes, brown with white stripes and pure brown all being common), and when threatened Grove Snails can retract their entire body into their shells (although larger predators, such as the Song Thrush, may be capable of simply smashing the shell.)

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/48586-Cepaea-nemoralis

#Grove snail #Grove Snails #snail #snails #zoology #biology #malacology #limacology #animal #animals #wildlife #european wildlife #molluscs #mollusks #gastropod #gastropods #invertebrates #invertebrate

First conclusive evidence that a terrestrial leech species can jump

A new study presents video evidence that at least one species of terrestrial leech can jump, behavior that scientists have debated for more than a century. Researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, Fordham University, and City University of New York (CUNY)’s Medgar Evers College published the footage and corresponding analysis today in the journal Biotropica. “We believe this is…

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#limacology #North America #zoology

#sluglove #wildlife #wildlifebiology #zoology #limacology #apc #aperfectcircle (at Layton, Utah) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0sLWBnACNa/?igshid=18q4wskxd87gs

#sluglove #wildlife #wildlifebiology #zoology #limacology #apc #aperfectcircle