8/7/2023 0 Comments Random fun facts about slugs![]() ![]() Variable degrees of nudity have basically arisen all throughout the snails, and many languages never even bothered giving "snails" and "slugs" two different names at all. Some groups of Gastropoda contain both shelled and un-shelled members, while others consist of entirely one or the other, and there even exists a full spectrum in between, from snails with internal or partially internal shells to near-slugs with a mere flake of shell hanging off their rumps. Taxonomically, the definition of "slug" becomes a little more nebulous. For the slug, the whole world is its shell, so long as it can haul itself back to its preferred hiding place before it gets baked by the sun every day. ![]() It may be more delicate and more vulnerable to dehydration, but it can also go wherever it pleases, hiding itself in deep cracks or crevices to escape the sun. A snail needs to intake a significant amount of calcium to keep that shell growing.Ī slug, on the other hand, trades the advantages of the shell for pure freedom. Your big, heavy backpack slows you down, limits where your body can fit, gives some predators something easier to grab onto, and you even have to keep building and mending the thing. Unfortunately, that convenience comes with a cost. Imagine keeping your most vital organs in a big, bulletproof backpack, and you'll have a handle on the life of a shelled Gastropod, or what we call a "snail." You can even pull the rest of yourself up into that backpack when you need to hide from predators, sleep through the hot day or just wait out a dry spell. Today we're just going to be talking terrestrial slugs, and in particular, my personal experiences with the terrestrial slugs of the United States, one of our few remaining conversation topics still untainted by despair and horror. It should go without saying, of course, that I'm not including nudibranchs or any of the marine slugs in this "gross underdog" equation, and they're a subject best suited to their own, distinct article anyway. Perhaps it's for this reason that I was always drawn to slugs so much more than their shelled counterparts, or perhaps it's just that simple blobbiness that I find just a little more charming all on its own. Once the very same animal is homeless and naked, it becomes much more divisive, much "grosser" and "creepier" in the eyes of far more people, with slugs seldom gracing anywhere near as many cartoons, fantasy paintings, lawn ornaments or "cuteness overload" blogs. Slugs are great! Sure, the hypnotically swirled shell of a snail has an almost unreal whimsy to it, but that seems to be precisely why they enjoy such widespread acceptance in our popular culture. ![]()
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