[NatureNS] slug love?

From: "jen cooper" <iffercooper@hotmail.com>
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:13:36 +0000
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Return-Path: <naturens-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/Environment/FNSN/MList; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

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very, very cool. thank you for such a great, in depth response! i suppose 
not many can say they've seen that. it was quite beautiful.

:) jen

>From: "Wild Flora" <herself@wildflora.com>
>Reply-To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
>To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
>Subject: RE: [NatureNS] slug love?
>Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 17:42:51 -0300
>
>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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