Slugs - Tumblr Posts
Day 26 of posting cute creatures we found on our field trip:
Ash slug (Limax cinereoniger) is the largest slug in Europe and, according to the Guinness book of records, the longest terrestrial slug in the world. Despite its formidable size of up to 30cm (!) this slug is not a pest. It lives only in ancient forests, far away from human settlements and feeds on lichen, moss and fungi. The colors of ash slug vary from this light grey to black, but it always has light colored keel on its back.
The internet has nicknamed this slug “glubby” because if you pick it up it curls up in its defensive pose and produces sticky mucus which makes it look very… well, glubby:
Don’t you just hate it when you discover something interesting so you take to google, who is useless, so now you just have a picture of what you assume to be slug guts, but you can’t confirm anything because the diagrams from google are outdated and it’s not like you can just contact a limacologist to ask them to identify what is happening in your picture of a slug you accidentally stepped on whilst barefoot at 11pm last year
Meet Graceodon, a convergent specie of Gastrodon ! They may share a similar slimy body but they’re not related. Graceodon lives exclusively under water and is a much faster swimmer. Graceodon is inspired by flatworms (see above) which are very similar to nudibranchs and often confused with !
welcome to my tea shop! (not a real tea shop) My name is carrion online but you can also call me bug or rat or one my names from my pronouns page. my pronouns are he/she/they and i am a minor! my biirthday is novmeber 6 and i am a scorpio I like snails, slugs, reptiles, amphibians, corvids, witchcraft, the color red, vintage items, nostalgia, old tv shows, felines and canines! i like writing stories so ill post them here and on my toyhouse! i may not post much so be patient with me lol
The unbearable joy of gardening, it could be worse...
So I was getting some serious gardening done today with my brother. I don’t think there are any people who have less knowledge of plants than we do (he once managed to mould cacti, I always withered them...). So we were clearing of weeds from the herb bed, each time we found something that was not obviously grass we asked: ‘What is this? Do you know this? Is it a flower? Is it some herbal-thingy? Can you eat it? Or can I just throw it away because it’s some weeds?’ Each time the answer was: ‘I have no idea. Probably weeds. It has no blossom so...just throw it away.’ (I have a feeling we threw away way more than what was neccessary)
Then the thing happened that was bound to happen: I had an unpleasant encounter. With an earthworm. (I honestly have no problem with bugs or spiders and everything else thats crawling around but these squidgy worms or slugs....uäääääh. Don’t need to have them anywhere near me tbh) And I was like: ‘Yikes. That’s disgusting!’ And my brother just relpied: ‘Could be worse, couldn’t it? Could be a slug’ Me: ‘Yeah... still nauseating, though...’ Brother: ‘That’s probably what the earthworm is thinking too.’ Me (used to such ‘compliments’ from his side): Well, thank you... Brother (totally ignoring me): ‘It’s probably thinking: ‘Ew, human! But it could be worse. That human could be a bird or something...’
♡₊˚ Yumemiushi Sea Slugs !!・₊✧
He's just a little guy. ( ˘ ³˘)♥
its called a glubby
found this reel from RoscoMcClelland and he was even funnier in the comments
Mr. Leech I need your help: I found out about this snail called Leptopoma nitidum, and it looks like its eyes aren't on stalks? Are those really their eyes? If so, why would they evolve so differently from other snails?
It's actually only unusual for *land* snails, though not unheard of! Here's another land snail with eyes at the base of the tentacles:
It's also the case for most freshwater aquatic snails:
Other water snails have eyes kind of "mid way" up the tentacles:
And in the ocean, it seems like the most common setup, especially for larger species, are tentacles forking off from eye stalks:
In fact, I'm not sure if there are any water-dwelling snails with tentacles JUST ending in eyes; it seems like that's mainly a special innovation by most of the air-breathing groups, which likely all evolved from one ancestor that had it first! So the snails like Leptopma evolved from aquatic snails and just didn’t move their eyes up their stalks, or just didn’t do so yet. Like any adaptation there must be both advantages and disadvantages to each method. If your eyes are on stalks you have a greater and more flexible field of view, but if those stalks are injured you’ll be blind until they grow back! Gastropods with eyes at the base are keeping them safer while the tentacles serve other sensory functions. Gastropods with the forking method are trying to balance both worlds and can pull their eyes into the shell without putting the “antennae” away. EDIT: what @teratomarty said is correct!
“IIRC, the tentacles in marine snails are chemosensitive. The theory is that eyes shifted forward in land snails because air is a much worse medium for scent than water, so sight became more important.”
What’s interesting is that both the land snails I’ve shown with low-set eyes are from rainforests, so, places where the air is really humid anyway!
Mr. Leech I need your help: I found out about this snail called Leptopoma nitidum, and it looks like its eyes aren't on stalks? Are those really their eyes? If so, why would they evolve so differently from other snails?
It's actually only unusual for *land* snails, though not unheard of! Here's another land snail with eyes at the base of the tentacles:
It's also the case for most freshwater aquatic snails:
Other water snails have eyes kind of "mid way" up the tentacles:
And in the ocean, it seems like the most common setup, especially for larger species, are tentacles forking off from eye stalks:
In fact, I'm not sure if there are any water-dwelling snails with tentacles JUST ending in eyes; it seems like that's mainly a special innovation by most of the air-breathing groups, which likely all evolved from one ancestor that had it first! So the snails like Leptopma evolved from aquatic snails and just didn’t move their eyes up their stalks, or just didn’t do so yet. Like any adaptation there must be both advantages and disadvantages to each method. If your eyes are on stalks you have a greater and more flexible field of view, but if those stalks are injured you’ll be blind until they grow back! Gastropods with eyes at the base are keeping them safer while the tentacles serve other sensory functions. Gastropods with the forking method are trying to balance both worlds and can pull their eyes into the shell without putting the “antennae” away. EDIT: what @teratomarty said is correct!
“IIRC, the tentacles in marine snails are chemosensitive. The theory is that eyes shifted forward in land snails because air is a much worse medium for scent than water, so sight became more important.”
What’s interesting is that both the land snails I’ve shown with low-set eyes are from rainforests, so, places where the air is really humid anyway!
Mr. Leech I need your help: I found out about this snail called Leptopoma nitidum, and it looks like its eyes aren't on stalks? Are those really their eyes? If so, why would they evolve so differently from other snails?
It's actually only unusual for *land* snails, though not unheard of! Here's another land snail with eyes at the base of the tentacles:
It's also the case for most freshwater aquatic snails:
Other water snails have eyes kind of "mid way" up the tentacles:
And in the ocean, it seems like the most common setup, especially for larger species, are tentacles forking off from eye stalks:
In fact, I'm not sure if there are any water-dwelling snails with tentacles JUST ending in eyes; it seems like that's mainly a special innovation by most of the air-breathing groups, which likely all evolved from one ancestor that had it first! So the snails like Leptopma evolved from aquatic snails and just didn’t move their eyes up their stalks, or just didn’t do so yet. Like any adaptation there must be both advantages and disadvantages to each method. If your eyes are on stalks you have a greater and more flexible field of view, but if those stalks are injured you’ll be blind until they grow back! Gastropods with eyes at the base are keeping them safer while the tentacles serve other sensory functions. Gastropods with the forking method are trying to balance both worlds and can pull their eyes into the shell without putting the “antennae” away. EDIT: what @teratomarty said is correct!
“IIRC, the tentacles in marine snails are chemosensitive. The theory is that eyes shifted forward in land snails because air is a much worse medium for scent than water, so sight became more important.”
What’s interesting is that both the land snails I’ve shown with low-set eyes are from rainforests, so, places where the air is really humid anyway!
Mr. Leech I need your help: I found out about this snail called Leptopoma nitidum, and it looks like its eyes aren't on stalks? Are those really their eyes? If so, why would they evolve so differently from other snails?
It's actually only unusual for *land* snails, though not unheard of! Here's another land snail with eyes at the base of the tentacles:
It's also the case for most freshwater aquatic snails:
Other water snails have eyes kind of "mid way" up the tentacles:
And in the ocean, it seems like the most common setup, especially for larger species, are tentacles forking off from eye stalks:
In fact, I'm not sure if there are any water-dwelling snails with tentacles JUST ending in eyes; it seems like that's mainly a special innovation by most of the air-breathing groups, which likely all evolved from one ancestor that had it first! So the snails like Leptopma evolved from aquatic snails and just didn’t move their eyes up their stalks, or just didn’t do so yet. Like any adaptation there must be both advantages and disadvantages to each method. If your eyes are on stalks you have a greater and more flexible field of view, but if those stalks are injured you’ll be blind until they grow back! Gastropods with eyes at the base are keeping them safer while the tentacles serve other sensory functions. Gastropods with the forking method are trying to balance both worlds and can pull their eyes into the shell without putting the “antennae” away. EDIT: what @teratomarty said is correct!
“IIRC, the tentacles in marine snails are chemosensitive. The theory is that eyes shifted forward in land snails because air is a much worse medium for scent than water, so sight became more important.”
What’s interesting is that both the land snails I’ve shown with low-set eyes are from rainforests, so, places where the air is really humid anyway!
Leopard slugs (Limax maximus) mating! While dangling on a thick line of mucus, both slugs extend their male reproductive organs from their heads and twine them together to exchange sperm.
Source. And diagrams of those dreamy sex organs.