Life is a slugfest, if you want !
If you have been looking at the above images, thinking how big shells these slugs have, Gotcha ! These are not slugs but their evolutionary relatives, snails. Slugs are equally slimy and slow creatures which have lost of their large external protective shells. Some slug species do still have a vestigial shell from their evolutionary past, located internally in majority of species.
Cool weather and rain is the best weather for slugs, since they may dry out without shells in dry and warm weather. I first started noticing them after moving to Germany. They wait out unfavorable weather conditions in dark and damp hiding areas, encasing themselves in a papery cocoon-like structure to wait it out dry spells. Some are capable to push down up to a meter in soil (source).
Most slug species are scavengers, eating fallen fruit, animal dropping, mushrooms and decaying plant material (source). Some are herbivores, feeding on leaves, flowers and fruits and can be a pest for agriculture. Then there are the ones which can be omnivores and out right carnivores, feeding on worms, snails and other slugs (source).
 |
| Image Source : Wikipedia |
Anatomically, they are designed for high speed demolition derby 😉! Kidding, that's just to check if you are still reading. Their movement is slow, in rhythmic waves, contracting muscles on the underside of the foot. At the same time a layer of mucus is produced, which helps to smooth the slugs path across the ground. This mucus is also the slugs navigation system back to their tunnels and feeding sites.
Then there are two pairs of retractable tentacles. Upper pair being an optical and smell sensor and the lower pair for feeling and tasting. The mouth parts are below the tentacles equipped with a tongue-like organ that is covered with approximately 27,000 tiny tooth-like protrusions (denticles).
The mantle is an area behind the head of the slug, made of thicker flesh than the head. The large pore (called the pneumostome) usually on their right side of the body serves a respiratory function, leading to a single lung. If a slug is not active or frightened, it will retract its head into the mantle for protection. To make it difficult for predators to grasp, the slug also secrete the slippery mucus.
Yawning ? According to the Guardian, 'Slug sex is a marvel to behold. Two hermaphrodite slugs meet on a tree branch and secrete a thick rope of extra-viscous slime, down which they gyrate like pole-dancers. Each inflates a huge, pale, flower-shaped penis, which they entwine together, and each slug fertilises the other. All this while dangling in mid-air.'
STOP ! Think, after spending the past few minutes looking at and reading about slugs how do you feel.
Excited, disgusted or perhaps wondering 'why am I reading this' !
Gotcha again :) ! This post is not about slugs but about two ideas:
(1) What you read about slugs was mere facts, discrete and without emotions. The associated emotion was something that came as a involuntary response, influenced most likely by some subconscious stimulus.
(2) What happened in the world around you, while you made the decision to read this, is so inconceivably linked that it is futile to think about an outcome.
I think, our day to day lives are also discrete, with each individual contributing to the random chain of events. Each one perceiving his surrounding differently and trying to act to the best of this ability. In turn, his action creating a stimulus for another. In this chain, perception and action are the only controls with us. We may perceive the chain as a BLISS or believe it is a SLUGFEST, if we want.
I'll close with the following picture, you decide how you feel about it !
LINKS: if you want read more about slugs, I got the info from theses pages:
1) http://www.slugwatch.co.uk/
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug
3) https://www.almanac.com/pest/slugs
