Ibycus Rachelae also called long-tailed slug or Ninja Slug, is a species of air-breathing
semi-slugs in the family
Helicarionidae
Helicarionidae is a family of air-breathing land snails or semi-slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicarionoidea.
Distribution
The distribution of Helicarionidae includes the eastern Palearctic, Malagasy, ...
.
The common name ''ninja slug'' is a result of the ability of the animal to fire "love darts", consisting of
calcium carbonate harpoons, at potential mates in order to inject them with hormones. The discoverers initially intended to name the species ''I. felis'' from its habit of curling its tail around its neck which looked to them reminiscent of a sleeping cat. But after the love dart behaviour was noticed, they named it ''I. rachelae'' instead after
Menno Schilthuizen
Menno Schilthuizen (born 1965, Vlaardingen) is a Dutch evolutionary biologist, ecologist, and permanent research scientist at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and a professor of evolution and biodiversity at Leiden University.
He ha ...
's girlfriend.
[
''I. rachelae'' is one of well over a hundred new species discovered in ]Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...
since 2007 and announced in a 2010 World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...
report.[
]
References
{{taxonbar, from=Q10299707
Helicarionidae