Land Snails Eating
While there are some terrestrial snails that are omnivorous and even carnivorous, most are herbivorous. Each species has a diet dependent on its size, age, habitat and individual nutritional requirements. They all must feed on foods that include significant amounts of calcium in order to keep their shell hard.
Those species that are herbivorous consume a variety of plants, including the leaves, stems, bark and fruits, as well as fungi and occasionally algae. They do so in an unusual way. Snails have an organ in their mouth with rows of tiny teeth, called a radula. When the food reaches this structure that looks like a sack, the teeth do not cut or grind it like human teeth would. Instead of being chewed, the radula scrapes the food and breaks it down before it passes through the esophagus to continue the digestion process.
The tiny teeth on the radula suffer much wear and tear as time passes. Therefore, they are continually replaced by others. Not all species have the same number of teeth. Some have rows with just a few teeth, while others have hundreds.
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Slug Scat
Slugs produce lots of mucus – some covers their whole body and makes it difficult for them to be picked up by a predator, some forms a “slime trail” that aids them when they are moving, and some envelopes their waste. After a slug has eaten and digested food (a wide variety of plants, fungi, earthworms and carrion), a mucus string of scat leaves through its anus, which is hidden under the leathery patch called a mantle, located just behind its head. The odd position of this opening is a result of the slugs’ evolutionary descent from snails. In a snail this opening must be outside the shell, and thus is far forward on its body. (Congratulations to Jean and Michele for their spot-on guesses.)
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How Slugs Eat
No-one needs a description of the damage that slugs can do in a garden, but the exact way in which they do the damage is quite unique. They actually do not have mouthparts as such, nor do they possess teeth as we know them. They, like most molluscs, have a radula, or rasping tongue-like organ with which they procure food. A bit of cartilage, the odontophore, forms the core of the radula. The rest of the radula consists of a band, similar to a conveyor-belt, covered with thousands of tiny tooth-like protrusions called denticles. The band moves over the odontophore, rasping away particles of food and moving them back into the slug’s gullet. The pictured slug was making short work of a mushroom.
ADDENDUM TO YESTERDAY’S POST: After several reader comments and self-reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that yesterday’s post could well be black bear, not raccoon, vomit. While all I found in the cornfield were signs of raccoons, it was a huge field, and I may have just missed bear sign or the bear may well have visited another field prior to getting sick. The amount of vomit was so large that it would have taken a giant raccoon to have left it. Both of these animals feed voraciously in the fall in preparation for winter — black bears can double their weight prior to denning.
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Slug Mating Behavior
Slugs are hermaphroditic, possessing both male and female organs; most species mate, however, with one slug pursuing the slimy trail of another. If a slug is in mating mode, there is a chemical that is present in its slime that conveys this information to other slugs. When two receptive slugs first encounter each other, there can be extensive interaction prior to mating. The pursuer often mouths the tip of the tail of the slug it’s pursuing (see photograph) to confirm that it’s receptive. The pursued slug may shake its tail vigorously to signal that it’s not interested, in which case they go their separate ways. If the leading slug is receptive, however, mating eventually takes place, with sperm being transferred from each slug to the other through penises that extend half the length of their bodies. During this process, the sexual organs are entwined; occasionally, in some species, the organs get stuck. If this happens, one slug gnaws off the other’s penis in a process called apophallation. The penis is not replaced and the slug lives the rest of its life as a female. (The opening you see on the side of the slug is its respiratory opening, or pneumostome.)
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