''Deroceras praecox'' 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 small air-breathing land

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, 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 ...

, 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 Agriolimacidae.

Taxonomy

When Wiktor (1966) described ''D. praecox'' he distinguished two forms on the basis of their genitalia. Later Wiktor (1973) realised that one of the forms of ''D. praecox'' that he had distinguished was synonymous with ''

Deroceras rodnae ''Deroceras rodnae'' is a species of air-breathing land slug, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Agriolimacidae. Taxonomy ''Deroceras rodnae'' was originally described from the Rodna Mountains in Romania by Romanian malacolo ...

'', described slightly earlier by Grossu & Lupu (1965). But the other form with a spiral end to its penis occupied a distinct range in the Sudeten mountains and neighboring areas; this is what is called ''D. praecox'' nowadays. It remains debatable whether ''D. praecox'' might be better viewed as a subspecies of ''D. rodnae'' ( Hutchinson & Reise, 2009). Note that the distinct differences in mating behaviour between ''D. praecox'' and ''D. rodnae'' that Reise (1995) reported turn out to refer to differences between ''D. praecox'' and a more distant species, ''

Deroceras juranum ''Deroceras juranum'' is a species of air-breathing land slug, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Agriolimacidae. Taxonomy Wüthrich (1993) described ''Deroceras juranum'' from the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, distinguish ...

'' ( Hutchinson & Reise, 2009).

Description

The coloration of the body of this slug is usually snowy white or off-white mottled with grey ( Wiktor, 2000). The head and tentacles are brownish. However, colour is often a misleading guide and identification should be based on dissection. Even within a site ''D. praecox'' may co-occur with other species that are indistinguishable externally ( Reise & Hutchinson, 2001). ''Deroceras praecox'' is distinct in having a spiral pocket at the end of its penis .

Distribution

This species occurs in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. It is not listed in the

IUCN red list The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

- and thus is not evaluated (NE) It occurs in: *

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

- near threatened (NT)Juřičková L., Horsák M. & Beran L., 2001: Check-list of the molluscs (Mollusca) of the Czech Republic. Acta Soc. Zool. Bohem., 65: 25-40. *

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

A closely related form of uncertain taxonomic status occurs in the uplands south of Dresden, Germany ( Hutchinson & Reise, 2009). This slug occurs in woodland.

References

* * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1200306 Agriolimacidae Gastropods described in 1966