Limax

Early yesterday afternoon a slug, identified as Limax maximus, was found in a semi-conscious state on a cold and dry concrete path.

Archive 2007-01-01 AYDIN 2007

Early yesterday afternoon a slug, identified as Limax maximus, was found in a semi-conscious state on a cold and dry concrete path.

A failed slug rescue AYDIN 2007

It is truly a vestigial structure left over from the snail ancestors of Limax.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

In adult Limax maximus, the shell is a flat, elongated plate (this post has a picture of the shell).

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

Simpson describes the development of Limax maximus starting from an egg: The body of the animal as first observed consists of a slight swelling of the upper side of the cell mass ...

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

The "flat disk" underneath is the internalized vestigial shell of the slugs in the genus Limax (also present in some other genera, for example, Deroceras).

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

By coincidence, or perhaps not by coincidence, the oldest original scientific paper I own, George B. Simpson's "Anatomy and physiology of Polygyra albolabris and Limax maximus" published in 1901 in the Bulletin of the New York State Museum also happens to mention the formation of the internal shell of Limax maximus during the slug's embryonic development.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

Here is Linnaeus's description of the slug genus Limax from page 652 of volume 1.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

The picture below, originally from this post, is of a couple of mating Limax maximus.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

Yesterday's post was about how during the development of another slug, Limax maximus, many pieces of calcium carbonate appear within the mantle and eventually fuse together to form the slug's shell.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009