Common garden slug  (Arion distinctus)

Learn about the scientific name of this species and how it fits into the tree of life at Nature Navigator.

Biology

The common garden slug breeds throughout much of the year and can be a serious pest of gardens as they attack cultivated plants, fruit, tubers and bulbs (1), which are eaten by means of a rasping tongue known as a radula. They emerge at night, and spend the day in moist places beneath stones, logs and other objects (1).

Slugs are related to snails; in the genus Arion, the shell is reduced to a group of calcareous granules below the 'mantle', which appears as a bulge on the upper surface of the slug (3).

Slugs are hermaphrodites, meaning that individuals possess both male and female reproductive organs, but self-fertilisation does not occur. During courtship, members of a pair follow each other in circles, whilst feeding on their partner's mucus trail (3).

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