Slugs have evolved from snails many separate times, but there are no records of a snail ever having evolved from a slug.
Snails and slugs are similar animals. The main difference between them is that a snail has a shell and a slug does not. Snails and slugs belong to the group of soft-bodied animals called mollusks, which also includes oysters, clams, and squid.
Snails and Slugs
Both animals belong to the phylum mollusks and to the class gastropods. However, they are completely different animals. That is why by taking a snail out of its shell, you will not turn it into a slug!
Slugs are all hermaphrodites and can fertilize themselves, but they can mate, too. By releasing pheromones into their slime, slugs indicate a readiness to mate—and some make quite a spectacle of it.
Snails have a lot to think about when they make love—because they're hermaphrodites. Unlike you, garden snails can produce sperm like males and carry eggs like females at the same time.
Slugs do not bite in a traditional way. Yet, they use a ribbon-like organ to scrape rocks and other surfaces, which can include human skin. Slug bites are not as dangerous as you would think. Among the few occurrences of slug bites, only some people experienced tingling and pulsation in the bitten area.
Yes, although the shell is transparent and soft to begin with. Snails need calcium to harden their shells and the first thing a newly hatched snail does is to eat the casing of its own egg to absorb calcium.
It takes about a year for slugs to mature into adults, which can live for about two years. Slugs can be serious garden pests, eating seedlings, plants and fruit and vegetable crops.
Touching a slug will not be dangerous to humans, but caution should be taken to wash your hands as they can carry parasites. While slugs may appear harmless and can be touched, they carry many parasites. However, not all slugs will be infected. However, if you touch an infected slug, it can pass parasites on to you.
Slugs can be a vector for transmission of parasitic nematodes that cause lungworm in various mammals, so they are usually avoided by hedgehogs and other mammals when other food is available. In a few rare cases, humans have contracted parasite-induced meningitis from eating raw slugs.
Snails may have opioid responses and mussels release morphine when confronted with noxious stimuli. Both reactions suggest that these animals do, in fact, feel pain. While mollusks don't have brains per se, they do exhibit some nervous system centralization. They have several pairs of ganglia connected to a nerve cord.
In fact, snails and slugs are so closely related that their main differentiator is their shell. A gastropod without a shell is known as a slug, and vice versa. They aren't the same species, but the presence of the shell is what classifies the organism as a snail.
After much wriggling about and tugging the slugs separate and find an appropriate place to lay eggs. An impregnated slug will lay between 3 and 50 eggs in a somewhat sheltered spot (under a bark chunk, in a small hole or crevice or someplace similar). Baby slugs will hatch in a month or two and mature in a few months.
They have both female and male reproductive cells (they are hermaphrodite). They don't actually need to mate with another snail in order to reproduce, self fertilisation is possible. After mating they lay around 80 white eggs in a damp, underground nest.
They are coated with a slimy substance that is slightly gummy. The eggs are gelatinous and of no perfect shape. Sometimes they are laid on vegetation but usually are harder to spot when laid on soil. Look for brownish-gray, slimy bundles when identifying eggs of slugs or snails.
NEONATES: A newly-hatched slug is called a neonate, and their typical food of choice is algae and fungus. However, they can feed on vegetative parts of plants. Young neonates weigh between 1-10 mg. They don't travel far from home.
Pouring salt on a slug will kill it in a matter of seconds, however, it generally takes quite a bit of salt to do so. The salt kills the slug through osmosis – it draws water from inside the slug and rapidly dehydrates it.
If you must handle them, pick them up with wet hands. Slugs dislike being handled and chemicals on your hands from things like lotions and soaps can be harmful to slugs. Spritz the aquarium with distilled water regularly. Slugs need a moist environment to thrive.
How Dangerous are Slugs? It may be a surprise, but slugs can cause harm. The slimy mucus that slugs produce can cause excess drool or vomiting in pets like cats and dogs if ingested. Even worse, some slugs carry a parasite called rat lungworm which can transfer into your pet if they eat a slug.
Snails hearts have a single auricle receiving blood from the lung and a single ventricle that pumps blood to the rest of the body, much like it does in humans.
A snail brain consists of several ganglia, the circumesophageal ganglia, fused to form a ring around the esophagus (Figure 8.1, Snail Brain Diagram). Each ganglion contains a relatively small number of neurons.
That's when love is in the air. But the sex life of these common snails is anything but ordinary. First, they're hermaphrodites, fitted with both male and female reproductive plumbing, and can mate with any member of their species they want.