''Geomalacus malagensis'' 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 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 ...

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

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 ...

, the round back slugs.

Distribution

Distribution of ''Geomalacus malagensis'' include southern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

Description

This slug species is pale beige-greenish to beige-grey, sometimes also yellowish-orange, with blackish narrow lateral bands having clearly marked upper edges and blurry lower edges, running from posterior end to frontal section of mantle, above the

pneumostome The pneumostome or breathing pore is a respiratory opening of the external body anatomy of a pulmonate land slug or land snail. It is a part of the respiratory system of gastropods. It is an opening in the right side of the mantle of a st ...

. The shape of the slug is elongate, dorso-ventrally flattened (oval in transversal cut). The head is very short (only 2–3 mm protruding from under the mantle). Tentacles are brown and long. Mantle length covers 35% of body. There are 26 grooves between medial line of dorsum and pneumostome. Sole is dirty cream, transparent (viscera visible in live slugs), medial section narrower than lateral sections and slightly concave. Mucus is colourless and thin, also when irritated, sometimes with orange hue. Mucus secreted onto the ground while crawling breaks into thin threads and coagulates into a unique spider-web like pattern, not seen in ''

Arion Arion (; ) was a kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet credited with inventing the dithyramb. The islanders of Lesbos claimed him as their native son, but Arion found a patron in Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Although notable for his mu ...

'' species. The length of the body is up to 80 × 10.5 mm (preserved 58 × 11 mm).

Ecology

''Geomalacus malagensis'' is frequent on calcareous soil, in gardens, shrubland and open forests. It seems to feed on fruits and other soft parts of plants. Sexually mature slugs are found in spring and autumn. Captured slugs were found infected with

nematode The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference."Species summary for ''Geomalacus malagensis''"

AnimalBase AnimalBase is a project brought to life in 2004 and is maintained by the University of Göttingen, Germany. The goal of the AnimalBase project is to digitize early zoological literature, provide copyright-free open access to zoological works, and p ...

, last modified 23 June 2008, accessed 9 December 2010. {{Taxonbar, from=Q5535449 Arionidae Gastropods described in 1991