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| Tropical leatherleaf | ||||||||||||||||
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| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||||
| Laevicaulis alte (Férussac, 1822) |
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Vaginulus alte Ferussac, 1821 |
The tropical leatherleaf, scientific name Laevicaulis alte, is a species of tropical slug, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk.
This slug thrives in arid habitats.
Contents |
Description
Laevicaulis alte is a round, dark-coloured slug without a shell, 7 or 8 cm long. Its skin is slightly tuberculated. The central keel is beige in colour.
This slug has a unique, very narrow foot; juvenile specimens have a foot 1 mm wide and adult specimens have a foot that is only 4 or 5 mm wide.
The tentacles are small, 2 or 3 mm long, and they are only rarely extended beyond the edge of the mantle.
Parasites
This slug is an intermediate host for Angiostrongylus cantonensis, the rat lungworm, a round worm, the most common cause of eosinophilic meningoencephalitis. [1]
Predators
This slug is eaten by the frog Rana tigrina [2]
Distribution
This species is probably indigenous in Africa (western Africa and eastern Africa). It has been introduced and become an invasive species [3] in the following areas:
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- southern Asia
- China (Taiwan)
- United States (Hawaii) ([4])
- islands in the Indian Ocean
- Australia (since 1889)
- Samoa
- ...
Habitat
This species lives in dry areas, mostly at lower altitudes.
Food items
What this slug eats in the wild is not known. In captivity this slug will eat:
- Dandelion leaves
- Tomatoes - it nibbles the skin first and then the pulp
- cucumber
- apples
- spinach
- When other items are not available, it will eat dill
In captivity it will not eat:
Behavior
This slug hatches from eggs. This species has several adaptations for living in dry conditions: a rounded shape with as small as possible surface area, and a narrow foot to reduce evaporation.
Juvenile specimens search for food nearly always at night, and stay buried in the soil during the day. Larger specimens are active during the day sometimes. This slug can grow up from 0.5 cm to approximately 4 cm in length in 7 months.
Recommended literature
References
Images:
- Drawing of ventral part of body, photo (In Japanese)
- Laevicaulis alte at Samoan Snail Project
- Photo (Japanese)
- [5], [6] (Japanese)
- Photo (Japanese)
Genome:
- Vernacular names: [7]:
- 皺足蛞蝓 (Chinese)
- アシヒダナメクジ (Japanese)
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 17 October 2008, at 23:44.
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