Slugs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

http://images.whatsthatbug.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/banana_slug_kate.jpg

It's a bit weird but can any one identify what kind of slugs these are. I've looked and the site I got the photo from indicates it's a banana slug. It's just we had a collection of at least 3 of them climbing up our gate and into the wall last night and I am curious. They looked pretty much exactly like the one in the photo. If they are there tonight I'll try and get a photo .

[snail]

Wow, they're gorgeous! Did they look exactly like the pic, Dips? Because Google is telling me that that type of banana slug is native to the US.

I belong to a malacology group that has some very eminent people in it - if you can get an exact pic, I can give you an ID.

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I thought you might be the person to reply Snail . Yes they looked exactly like the picture and there was 3 of them in total. I asked for the ID becasue I had also read that they were native to the US. I was wondering if they just happened to look like banana slugs. I'll definately try for a pic though; although they might be well gone by now.

[RagDoll]

Wow, they're gorgeous!

Hehehe, this made me laugh... I don't know how anyone could consider a slug gorgeous

[peecee]

Yeah, gorgeous...

I grew up on a farm, where the BIG slugs came in under the back door every time it rained. Picture this - you walk into the kitchen in the morning, and your bare, or even slippered, feet squelch horribly on a damp lump on the floor tiles - NOOOOOOOO THANK YOU!!!!

[snail]

Well, I'm a snail, and I'm gorgeous . . .


Pee, you mollusc-murderer, you!

[peecee]

Snail, hun, I would NEVER squash anything dressed in a shell. So it serves the slugs *shudder* right for slipping under our door naked.

Mind you, if we'd had any yellow slugs in those days, we'd probably have eaten them...

*ahem* pee nips back to the ice cream threads.

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Snail, hun, I would NEVER squash anything dressed in a shell. So it serves the slugs *shudder* right for slipping under our door naked.

Maybe they were being thoughtful and just left their wet coats (shells) outside as to not wet your floor? and all this time you had them mistaken.

[snail]

Aw, what a lovely thought, Dips You're obviously basing your opinion of them on how you feel about me

But actually, they probably did have shells and they did bring them in with them. Slugs are descended from snails (not the other way round, as you might think) and they have a vestigial shell under that thing that looks like a saddle on their back. It's just a thin plate, or in some cases just a mass of calcium carbonate grains, but it's there. It no longer serves any purpose at all, it just hasn't quite vanished yet - a fascinating example of evolution at work.

Aydin, who's one of the members of my malacology group, has a great picture of the shell of a Limax, one of the best-known examples of this and possibly the slug Pee encountered, on his website here:
http://snailstales.blogspot.com/2009/02 ... ximus.html

So Pee, you discriminated against them unfairly

Alright, I'll shut up about slugs now.

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Aw, what a lovely thought, Dips You're obviously basing your opinion of them on how you feel about me

Ovbiously that is what it is .


Ok as a weird question...what use does a snails shell have? Do they hide in it? pack their house in it (as it said when you are a kid hehe), use it for protection?

At Bamburgh on one of the beaches there are loads of really pretty snail shells, I usually make pictures with them

[snail]

Protection from predators and shelter from dehydration. Slugs cope with both those events by going into small cracks (like Pee's door) - it's an alternative solution to the same problem.

At Bamburgh on one of the beaches there are loads of really pretty snail shells, I usually make pictures with them

Yes, you posted a pic on here, it was really good.

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I have photos on my wall with various "beach objects" spelling my name....

So you mean snails don't have a bedroom and living room and kitchen inside their shell?

[snail]

I never said that. We need to be comfortable while we're staying wet and safe.

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Thats ok then

[Bel Bel]

Oonly you guys could make such an interesting conversation out of slugs
And educational too