Red slug

Short Description

The red slug is very large and usually reddish in colour. However, it can also be black and dark brown to grey, red and orange. The foot margin is almost always red to yellowish brown. There are elongated coarse wrinkles on the abdomen. The underside is light grey or reddish. The animals grow up to 15 centimetres long.

The young are yellowish to light orange with a black head.

Features

Red slug

Arion rufus

very big
mostly reddish body
Head always darker than the rest of the body

Similar species

Spanish slug

Arion vulgaris

The more common Spanish snail can hardly be distinguished with the bare eye when fully grown. Only the young can be distinguished with certainty. Young Spanish snails are grey-brown-yellow-orange striped.

Black slug

Arion ater

It looks very similar to black specimens of the red slug. However, it never has a red foot margin.

In the city

It lives in a wide variety of habitats such as forests and wet meadows, but also in gardens and parks. In inner-city areas in particular, however, it is being displaced by the Spanish slug. In Berlin, it may already be extinct.

Fun Facts

Originally, the red slug was widespread in Central and Western Europe and also occurred as a cultivator in gardens. Since it has been displaced by the Spanish slug, it has become increasingly rare and has almost completely disappeared from human-formed habitats.
It is nocturnal. In humid weather it can also be seen during the day.
It is considered a pest of cultivated plants. Because of its rarity, however, it must no longer be combated.
It lives on green and rotting plant material, fungi, faeces and carrion.
She can live to be a year old.
Endangerment level Germany: not endangered

Sources

Habitus, Hans Hillewaert, CC-BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arion_rufus_(Dourbes).jpg

Habitus, ACBahn, CC-BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arion_Rufus_Kermeter.JPG

Habitus, Walter Siegmund, CC-BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arion_rufus_1655.JPG

Page „Rote Wegschnecke“. : Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Date of last revision: 27.06.2017, 16:04 UTC. URL: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rote_Wegschnecke&oldid=166771322 (Accessed: 09.10.2017).

Nordsiek, R. (n.d.) Die lebende Welt der Weichtiere. Wegschnecken (Arionidae) Teil 1, URL: http://www.weichtiere.at/Schnecken/land.html?/Schnecken/land/arionidae.html (Accessed: 09.10.2017).

Wiese, V. (2014) Die Landschnecken Deutschlands. Finden – Erkennen – Bestimmen, Wiebelsheim: Quelle & Meyer Verlag.

Hackenberg, E. & Müller, R. (2017) Rote Liste und Gesamtartenliste der Weichtiere (Mollusca: Gastropoda und Bivalvia) von Berlin. : Der Landesbeauftragte für Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege/Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz (eds.) Rote Listen der gefährdeten Pflanzen, Pilze und Tiere von Berlin, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-5845 (Accessed: 09.10.2017).