''Arion lusitanicus'', also known by its common name Portuguese slug, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of air-breathing

land slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a sma ...

, a

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group inclu ...

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family

Arionidae Arionidae, common name the "roundback slugs" or "round back slugs" are a taxonomic family of air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Arionoidea. Distribution The distribution of this family of s ...

Distribution

''Arion lusitanicus'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

forests A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

of the western

Lisbon Region Lisbon Region () is one of the seven NUTS II designated regions of Portugal, which coincides with the NUTS III subregion Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The region covers an area of 3001.95 km2 (the smallest region on mainland Portugal) and inc ...

(such as the

Sintra-Cascais Natural Park The Sintra-Cascais Natural Park is a park on the Portuguese Riviera, one of the 13 Conservation areas of Portugal, Natural Parks of Portugal. While only established in 1994 as a Natural Park by the Portuguese Government, it has been protected sin ...

or the

Arrábida Natural Park Arrábida Natural Park () is a protected area in Portugal. Founded in 1976, the park occupies an area of , ( on land and at sea) covering the southernmost margin of the Setúbal Peninsula. One of the park's unique features is its carbonate geolo ...

) in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Description

In slugs it is often difficult to establish good criteria for identifying species using external features or internal features, as colouration can be quite variable, and the rather plastic anatomy makes diagnostic anatomical features difficult to establish. It is a rather large (up to long) slug of reddish-brown colour. There are two light brown bands on the dorsum and mantle, the right band passes above the pneumostome. The margin of the foot is reddish or yellowish with dark transverse lines reaching into the lateral parts of the sole. The sole is olive greyish with darker marginal zones. The tentacles are blackish. Genitalia: Atrium spherical and undivided, spermatheca ovoid, spermatheca duct as long as spermatheca or slightly shorter, getting slightly wider near insertion at atrium, epiphallus longer than vas deferens, vagina longer and wider than spermatheca duct.

Taxonomy

The more well known

Spanish slug The Spanish slug (''Arion vulgaris'', but formerly widely referred to as ''Arion lusitanicus'' owing to a misidentification) is an air-breathing land slug, a terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc, mollusk in the family Ari ...

''Arion vulgaris'' (Moquin-Tandon, 1855) was for a time misidentified as ''Arion lusitanicus'', but the two slugs are not very closely related, differing in internal anatomy, shape of

spermatophore A spermatophore, from Ancient Greek σπέρμα (''spérma''), meaning "seed", and -φόρος (''-phóros''), meaning "bearing", or sperm ampulla is a capsule or mass containing spermatozoa created by males of various animal species, especiall ...

and number of

chromosomes A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most importa ...

References

External links

Arion lusitanicus
images at

Encyclopedia of Life The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It aggregates content to form "pages" for every known species. Content is compiled from existing trusted ...

Arion (gastropod) Endemic fauna of Portugal Gastropods described in 1868 Taxa named by Jules François Mabille {{Arionidae-stub