Tuesday 27 July 2010

gamete exchange ?

does anyone know what these slugs are up to? (They are not eating, unless they eat paving stones)

5 comments:

  1. Silly answers:

    maypole dancing
    a pinwheel
    waiting for a fifth for a starfish??

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know what they are doing but a 4-way gamete exhange doesn't seem likely to me. But I'm certainly no expert on the sex lives of gastropods.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think they are mating because of the thread like structures connecting their hind ends together (obvious on close inspection of the original photo). But I have never seen anything like this before.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gastropods following a crustacean example? Lewis Carroll mentioned a lobster quadrille. Could this be the first sighting of a slug quadrille. "Take your partners and proceed very slowly around!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. in search of higher levels of wisdom I have posted a query on wild about Britain see .. http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/insects-and-invertebrates/73306-slug-fest.html#post659112

    ReplyDelete