Vocabulary

Slugs only use a few phrases from the native language of whatever country they are living in, thus, they have a fairly limited vocabulary.

Just kidding!  The following is a list of interesting terms about slugs and snails.

In no particular order:

  • Aestivation: Temporary survival strategy of slowed metabolism within a papery membrane in order to wait out dry or cold weather.
  • Pneumostome: The breathing hole leading to the lungs. Normally on the slugs right side.
  • Gastropod: “Stomach-footed”
  • Carina: any keel-like anatomical ridge. prominent on some slug secies.
  • Hermaphrodite: Having both male and female reproductive organs
  • Self-amputation: Spontaneous dropping of a body part, (the tail, in the slug) as an escape tactic
  • Sensory tentacles: The feeling and tasting appendages near the slug’s mouth
  • Mantle: Cloak-like covering on front upper half of slug’s body
  • Mullusca: Phylum that includes snails, slugs, clams and oysters. They are all molluscs.
  • Caffeine: A natural pesticide that can paralyze and kill small snails and slugs
  • Banana Slug: Large colorful slug sometimes reaching 10” common in the Pacific Northwest
  • Pulmonate:  Terrestrial, living on the land
  • Detrivores: eating decaying vegetable material
  • Carnivore: eating other slugs, snails or earthworms
  • Radula: a rough tongue-like organ
  • Denticles: the thousands of tiny teeth that cover the radula
  • Invertebrates: animals with no backbone, like the slug
  • Hygroscopic: water absorbing, like slug mucus (This is why slime is so difficult to wash off)
  • Vestigial: an evolutionary left-over that now serves little purpose

 

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