> Hello list: I saw something yesterday I had not seen before, and was
> interested to see how common this is. I know there are carnivorous
> slugs, but was not sure if they also ate carrion? I am doing some snap
> trapping in NE MN, and have been amazed at the numbers of slugs on the
> traps. They can clean the peanut butter off a trap in 24 hours. But I
> also had 2 captured animals covered in slugs, and it appeared that the
> slugs had begun to eat the animals. The first vole could have simply
> had ear issues, but the next animal was obviously being consumed.
>
> I am sure I am seeing something common I just have never seen before
> since I normally do only live trapping. And I *still* can't get a
> straight answer on whether slugs are native to MN or if like
> earthworms the ones we have are European invasives.

Native and introduced slugs are both widespread in North America, but
some details on what they look like would be needed to determine which
are coming to the traps.

I have an aquarium with lots of freshwater basommatophorans
(Polyrhytis, aka North American "Stagnicola", Planorbella, Physella).
They are rather distant relatives of land slugs, but somewhat similar
in diet: rasp on any non-distasteful organic material that can't
outrun them.  Anything that dies in the aquarium, or that can't get
away, gets eaten.  Such indiscriminate feeding has also been reported
in apple snails (in the latest Malacologia) and I've seen an Elimia in
a bucket start to munch on a Corbicula.

--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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