[NatureNS] slug love?

From: "Wild Flora" <herself@wildflora.com>
To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
References: <BAY112-F134741E8F094A488AA7BECB5E90@phx.gbl>
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 17:42:51 -0300
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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

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