Testacella haliotidea

Family: Testacellidae

Common name: Shelled slug, Earshell slug

Discovery: Draparnaud, 1801

Identification

Length: 80-120 mm

Testacella haliotidea is cream-colored or yellow above, whitish on its foot. It has a small shell upon the dorsal posterior surface of the tail, and this shell barely covers the junction of two pronounced lateral grooves.

Ecology

Found in gardens, parks, fields, and vineyards (Kerney and Cameron, 1979), T. haliotidea is a predator of earthworms and other snails. Laboratory work showed that T. haliotidea may take from 40 minutes to three days to eat a worm (Stokes and Hirst, 1958). The slug’s eggs are laid under the soil in clutches of up to 40 and turn from white to brown soon after laying. Some eggs in the laboratory took nearly two years to hatch. Some of the slugs aestivated sporadically in a coating of mucus and soil (Stokes and Hirst, 1958).

Taxonomy

Testacella europaea is a synonym.

Distribution

Western Europe and the western Mediterranean (Kerney and Cameron, 1979)

Conservation