If class is your factor then contemplate the ash-black slug. Its nightly forays by way of the forest seeking fungi are the epitome of grace, a stately glide not solely alongside the woodland flooring however up and alongside the mossy branches of timber.
If measurement is your factor, then the ash-black slug should get your vote. Britain’s greatest slug is among the largest land slugs on this planet. The ash-black slug can develop as much as 30cm (11.8in) in size, though most measure up at a nonetheless spectacular 10-20cm.
This magnificent gastropod (which means “belly-foot”) is a keeled slug with a pale-coloured ridge operating alongside its again contrasting with its dark-grey colouration. It has a pale stripe alongside its foot as effectively.
Slugs are disliked for devouring gardeners’ lettuces however the ash-black slug isn’t a backyard pest however an historical woodland dweller. Right here it feeds on fungi, algae and lichen and lives for an unusually very long time, as much as 5 years.
The ash-black slug’s class in movement turns into one thing stranger when it’s mating time.
Ash-black slugs are hermaphrodites, so every particular person is female and male on the similar time. They’ll reproduce alone however want to discover a accomplice, attracting them with a path of scented slime as they glide up into the timber.
Once they discover a accomplice, the pair carry out a twirling dance, ultimately suspending themselves with mucus from a department. A putting pale blue corkscrew-like appendage unfurls from the facet of every slug’s head. Every corkscrew is definitely its penis, and it’s so long as the slug’s physique.
The slugs cross a bundle of sperm to one another, and fertilise it themselves. Eggs are laid within the damp woodland flooring and younger emerge anytime from autumn to spring.
African savannahs could have their “large 5” charismatic beasts however on Dartmoor nationwide park there’s a “little 5” together with the ash-black slug. The moist woodlands on the fringes of Dartmoor are a stronghold for the creature.
Threats embrace pure ones such because the blue floor beetle, which is Britain’s largest floor beetle. Its 3cm measurement is tiny in contrast with the slug but it surely ferociously assaults the larger animal.
The ash-black slug isn’t endangered however sadly seems to be in decline, probably as a result of elevated air air pollution is lowering the ubiquity of delicate lichens which are a key a part of its weight loss program.
So do totally different, vote slug.
Welcome to the Guardian’s UK invertebrate of the yr competitors. Day by day between 2 April and 12 April we’ll be profiling one of many unbelievable invertebrates that stay in and across the UK. Tell us which invertebrates you assume we ought to be together with right here. And at midnight on Friday 12 April, voting will open to resolve which is our favorite invertebrate – for now – with the winner to be introduced on Monday 15 April.
