Banana Slug are Mollusks, which means they are soft-bodied with no visible skeleton. They also belong to the class Gastropoda, which can be recognized by having a muscular foot, a mantle with a cavity, a meaty hump on their back, and a radula (or sand-paper-like grinding mouth parts). They are Pulmonates, which means they have a small lung inside their bodies which opens to the outside with a pneumostone.
Ariolimax californicus J. G. Cooper, 1872 — California banana slug
Ariolimax columbianus (Gould, 1851) — Pacific banana slug
Ariolimax dolichophallus Mead, 1943 - Slender banana slug
cacoseraph
HABITAT & ECOLOGY
Detritivore that inhabits mostly moist environments. Seem especially fond of eating mushrooms. Can secrete and ooze barrier to guard against dehydration. At least part of respiration is accomplished through the skin.
Slime is useful in mating too. A slug that is ready to find a mate and lay eggs leaves a chemical in the slime to attract other slugs. Another slug smells the chemical and follows the trail to the slug who left it.
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Slugs are hemaphrodites, which means they contain both male and female organs. A slug that is ready to mate will smell the slime trail left by another slug and follows the trail until it finds it. The slugs exchange sperm and produce 20 or less translucent eggs which is laid under a log or in leaves. Eggs are about half as big as your fingernail on your pinky finger and may be pearly white, pink or even yellowish. Mating and egg laying occurs several times throughout the year. Eggs and young are not protected by the parents.
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Most people think that a slug's cloaca is located at the back end of the slug, as it is in most animals. This is not true. The lump of material that often gets dragged behind the slug is actually dirt and leafy material which was collected by the slime and gets dropped off at the back end of the slug. The cloaca is located behind the pneumostone under the mantle so it cannot be seen except when the slug is getting rid of wastes.
http://www.naturepark.com/bslug.htm
holy yikes!
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So what is so interesting about banana slugs!? Well, these slugs are hermaphrodites, which means that they can act as both males and females at the same time. When they mate, they insert their penises into eachother at the same time. The unusual thing (in case you don't find that unusual enough!) is that sometimes, but not always, when they finish mating one slug will chew the penis completely off the other, a process called Apophallation. Sometimes it happens that both slugs engage in chewing so that at the end of the mating encounter, both slugs are penis-less.
http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/grad/weaver/Pages/project.html
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Banana Slugs are hermaphrodites. Each animal has both male and female reproductive organs. Banana slugs mate with each other at all times of year, and they usually cross-fertilize, each producing eggs and sperm simultaneously. The mating ritual may last more than 12 hours, often spent pulling and twisting into incredible positions as they try to pull apart. Often, the penis of one of them must be gnawed off in order to release the pair. This unique phenomenon is known as apophallation.
http://www.walnet.org/stanley_woods/slugz/bananaslug.html
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Slugs are hermaphroditic which means they have both male and female reproductive organs. Normally, slugs trade sperm with other slugs, but can fertilize their own eggs. They may lay 12 to 100 eggs at a time and up to 50 to 150 eggs each year. The eggs are pearl-like in color and about the size of a person's pinky fingernail. The eggs are laid in clusters under logs, rocks, and in the soil. Eggs are laid in the early spring, late summer and early fall. Most adults die after laying eggs. The eggs laid in the late summer or early fall may not hatch until spring. It takes three to four weeks for the eggs to hatch.
http://www.scsc.k12.ar.us/2001Out...istory/Projects/GannK/Default.htm
Banana Slug start off as 15-20 mm colorless eggs deposited by their hemaphroditic parents in areas of high ground water and humidity. Usually in groups of 30, Banana Slug eggs will hatch in about 3-8 weeks and require a sustained moisture, mild temperatures, and a very good hiding place as Banana Slugs are popular with their predators at all stages of their life.
http://everything2.com/e2node/banana%2520slug
It is a decomposer, which means it chews up leaves, and animal droppings and other dead plant material and recycles it into soil. One of their favorite foods seems to be mushrooms http://www.naturepark.com/bslug.htm
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Banana Slugs eat living and decaying vegetation, roots, fruit, seeds, bulbs, lichen, algae, fungi, animal droppings and even carcasses. Mushrooms are their favourite food.
http://www.walnet.org/stanley_woods/slugz/bananaslug.html
HANDLING:
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It is best to do your slug studies out of doors and leave them where you find them as they make a somewhat slimey animal for classroom studies and should not be kept in a forest floor terrarium unless you are willing to invest the time to clean the slime off the sides of the container. As well, make sure to handle them with clean hands as the salts, natural oils and other contaminants on your hands can damage their skin.
HANDLING: These secrete a VERY annoying natural glue in their slime! It is a task to get it off your hands! Combine that with the fact you are probably damaging the slugs when you free handling them and they should be considered a mostly hands off pet bug!
What am I studying? I am studying evolutionary biology and I became interested in banana slugs because I feel that they are good organisms to study sexual conflict between hermaphroditic mating partners.
LIT
Funk & Wagnalls Wildlife Encyclopedia 18. Funk & Wagnalls, Inc. New York, NY, 1969/1970.
The Banana Slug: A Close Look at a Giant Forest Slug of Western North America. Written By Alice Bryant Harper; photos by Daniel Harper, 1988.
Branson, B. 5/1/96. Snails Without Shells. The World & I, vol. 11: 166.
Grzimek, B. 1972. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Vol 3. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
