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Arion rufus (Linnæus, 1758)
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Species name:
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Arion rufus (Linnæus, 1758)
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Taxon name:
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Limax rufus Linnæus, 1758
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Originally described in:
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Linnæus, C. 1758. Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. - pp. [1-4], 1-824. Holmiæ. (Salvius).
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Distribution:
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Central and W Europe, N Italy
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Diagnosis:
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Slug usually reddish, but also brown, orange or black, foot-fringe nearly always red to yellowish brown, tubercles large and elongate. Sole light grey or cream to reddish. Juveniles pale yellowish to light orange with dark head, tentacles blackish brown, sometimes with pale colour bands.
Atrium very large, this is also visible during copulation, approximately same diameter as spermatheca, epiphallus not much wider than vas deferens, oviduct narrow, spermatheca spherical.
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Size:
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Up to 150 mm long, exceptionally 180 mm
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Biology:
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Natural humid forests and humid meadows, margins of water bodies, swamps, also in cultivated areas until the 1970s when it was replaced by Arion vulgaris. In Britain mainly in lowlands and man-made habitats in southern Britain and Ireland. Feeds on green and rotting plants, mushrooms, faeces and dead animals.
Life cycle 1 year. Reproduction by copulation, occasionally also by self-fertilization, up to 500 oval eggs (3 x 4 mm) in several clutches of 15-60 eggs are laid between May and September, juveniles hatch after 25-40 days and reach maturity in the next summer after 9-12 months.
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Threatened:
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Increasingly rare, disappeared nearly completely from culticated areas. Originally widespread and frequent, but has been replaced by Arion vulgaris in many regions.
Decreasing in Bavaria, vulnerable in Austria.
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Family:
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Arionidae
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Higher group:
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Gastropoda
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Comments:
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References: Moquin-Tandon 1855: 10 (life cycle), Kerney & Cameron 1979: 104, Falkner 1990: 194, Manganelli et al. 1995: 17, Turner et al. 1998: 315, Kerney 1999: 120, Welter-Schultes 2012: 479 (range map).
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