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Terrestrial
Gastropods of the Columbia Basin, British Columbia
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| Family LIMACIDAE Gray,
1824
Genus Limax Linnaeus, 1758
Limax maximus 
Limax maximus Linnaeus,
1758: Giant Gardenslug
Description: A large slug (extended length, 100 mm or more), typically yellowish grey or brown spotted or striped with black, or uniformly dark brown; spots often coalesced into 2 or 3, often interrupted, pairs of lateral bands; mantle with spotted or mottled brown, well anterior and with its posterior edge somewhat angular from above, skin of the mantle having a pattern of fine concentric wrinkles, somewhat like a fingerprint, with this pattern centred on the midline of the mantle; pneumostome behind the middle of the mantle; head pale, tentacles reddish brown; foot fringe pale; keel incomplete, near the tip of the tail only; tail tapering more or less gradually to a point; mucus colourless, sole creamy white. Internal shell oblong with the nucleus terminal and left of centre. Similar Species: Limax maximus is comparable in size to the native, coastal Banana Slug (Ariolimax columbianus) (Gould, 1851), but has a wrinkled mantle and different colour markings. Habitat: In British Columbia Limax maximus occurs in gardens, fields and woods; in damp, shaded places, under rocks, wood and vegetation. Range: Europe, Asia Minor and Algeria. Introduced North America, South America, Australia, Hawaii and elsewhere (Pilsbry 1948). Distribution: Previously reported from Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Vernon (Rollo & Wellington 1975), but now known from southern Vancouver Island and the Columbia Basin. Name: Genus, Latin for "slug". Species name in reference to the large size. Records: W side of Slocan River, just S of Winlaw (49°35.66'N, 117°35.47'W) (RBCM 998-00279-001); Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area (49°07.34'N, 116°37.24'W) (RBCM 998-00264-001); N end of Slocan Lake (49°54.04' N, 117°23.25' W) (RBCM 998-00266-001). View the map. |
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