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Index of Subjects Thank you, Jen, for giving the the opportunity to quote the following. (We'll see if it gets past the censors.): According to the Western Society of Malacologists "Field Guide to the Slug" (Sasquatch Books), "Although slugs are hermaphroditic, each animal equipped with both male and female reproductive organs, they mate with themselves only if no other slugs are around. ... The actual exchange of sperm is preceded by an elaborate courtship ritual, which supposedly reduces the chances of two individuals of separate species mating and giving rise to hybrids. "During courtship, two slugs will circle each other, often for hours, with both partners engaged in ritualized bouts of lunging, nipping, and sideswiping with their tails. The two slugs may also display their disproportionately large sex organs. ... "'The sight of a courting pair of slugs majestically circling one another and ceremoniously rasping each other's flanks while they solemnly wave their enormous penises overhead puts the most improbably athletic couples of Pompeii and Khajuraho into a more appropriate and severely diminished perspective,' note researchers C. David Rollo and William G. Wellington. 'Athletic' is an even more appropriate adjective for great gray garden slugs, which are able to copulate in midair, suspended by stretchy strands of mucus up to 17 3/4 (45 cm) long." In short, it seems likely that you caught a couple of great gray garden slugs in flagrante dilecto. What you saw hanging from them was probably their swollen genital areas. It wouldn't have been egg, as these are laid later, in a more conventional (i.e., chicken-like) fashion, or babies as the eggs don't hatch for several weeks, if not longer. The great gray garden slug, Limax maximus, is from Eurasia but apparently is not considered a pest species as it eats mainly decaying material. It's fairly recognizable because it has leopardlike spots or on the mantle, often with a striped body. Photo at http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek000608.html -----Original Message----- From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] On Behalf Of jen cooper Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 10:36 AM To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Subject: [NatureNS] slug love? last night i found two slugs hanging on a mucous thread from the side of my house. they were entwined in a really beautiful spiral. there was something hanging from them. it came from each of them and looked like it originated behind their heads. but it was dark and i didnt want to disturb them too much so i'm really not sure... it was fleshy and also wrapped in a spiral around the other. i would guess that this was iether sex organs or perhaps little baby slugs? they looked sluggy but where smaller and whitish and so entwined that i could not pick out any characteristics like antenae or anything. when i went back later to check on them one slug was on the step below and the other was on the mucous thread, i imagine eating it. there were no fleshy bits present then. does anyone have any idea what i witnessed? any slug love experts? :) jen _________________________________________________________________ Show Your Messenger Buddies How You Really Feel http://www.freemessengeremoticons.ca/?icid=EMENCA122
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