The Gigantic Gastropod by Chipka
Close
Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.
Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.
Description
I have never seen a slug like this in Chicago. I suspect s/he may be an interloper: dropped from the bottom of a train or some such vehicle.
I discovered this specimen today; I worked—as expected—and returned to the truck-yard—as expected—only to find that there was more work to do. One of the hazards of moving dental equipment is the accumulation of packaging material: boxes, crates, pallets, strange lumps of packing foam of some hyper-modern species, and occasional bits of ill-defined dental detritus. There are times when it’s necessary to load everything onto a truck and make a trip to the recyclers. I can’t say that my father’s moving business is one of the more green organizations in Chicago, but we do keep recyclers in business, when it comes to packing stuff.
In the process of loading boxes onto the largest working truck in the fleet, I discovered a rather moist glob of something. I thought it was leaf debris, or something gone slimy from the amount of rain we’ve been having. It was, indeed, slimy, and it moved. Slowly. To my surprise and amusement, the unexpected passenger adhering to the bottom of a box revealed itself to be one of the largest gastropods I’ve ever seen in the Midwestern USA. In total truth, I haven’t seen a wide variety of gastropods here. We have garden slugs. We have tiny, little snails, we have larger snails (imported from elsewhere) and we have more garden slugs. I have not yet identified this giant of the slug world, but I have photographed it. I also transplanted it from box-bottom to the nice, spongy rot of a very dead tree stump. I photographed it as much as I could, and this is the most…um…artistic shot I was able to manage. I find it somewhat amusing that the slug in question was actually too large for the macro setting of my camera. I zoomed in as close as I could, but unlike other Chicago slugs, I couldn’t fit the entire critter into frame, and so I simply focused on the frontal expanse. The slug itself was a good five inches in length, and rather heavy. Unlike normal Chicago area garden slugs, this little snot factory seemed more intent on producing a strong, sticky adhesive rather than the regular slimy stuff Chicagoans are familiar with. I wonder—now—if I should have captured this specimen and opened my own adhesive production plant. I’m sure s/he would have made a decent enough business partner.
Or not.
Well, all adhesive business schemes aside, here’s a whopper of a slug—at least by Chicago standards. I’m also aware of the Pacific Northwest custom of slug-slinging; it’s an idea I find amusing, especially in light of this particular specimen. This gorgeous creature produces an exceptionally sticky and powerfully adhesive sort of mucus…it dries quickly and glues leaves together quite nicely. I won’t say how I know that. Also, slinging might be impossible as a heavy-lift vehicle might also be required to lift this...um...monopodial person.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.
Comments (19)
jocko500
cool
auntietk
You see, the idea is to get a flexible bit of something ... a small bamboo garden stick works perfectly ... as your tool of choice. Since they move so slowly, it isn't difficult to place the stick in just the right place: about a quarter of an inch away from the near side of the slug, and right about in the middle of its length. At this point you are not touching the slug, you understand. Then you push sort of down and flick the stick quickly in the direction of said slug, rather like a golf swing. If you do it right, the slug will fly, and its flight will describe a nicely satisfying arc. If you do this off the concrete patio in the direction of the bog (assuming you have a bog) you'll hear a loud plopping sound as it hits, hopefully several yards away. Don't ask me how I know this. It's very important that slugs learn to fly. I believe what you've got there, my friend, is a leopard slug, more properly known as a limax maximus. I've not seen them here. We do have banana slugs, though, which are about twice the size of your little truckyard buddy. Fortunately I haven't seen any around my house. Mostly we have the small brown garden slugs (2 to 4 inches long), which are the ones that have such a high need to learn to fly. I believe Denise will back me up on this. :P
MrsLubner
We've been visited on occasion but the California State gastropod - the banana slug. They are huge, gooshy, and very yellow. Finding one in bare feet in the dark is an unpleasant experience. But finding one like this in daylight with a camera is awesome!
whaleman
Looks like some sort of monopedalian intestine experiment gone wrong! Glad he's not here. I wonder if anything predates on this critter, aside from a box of salt?
RodS
Oh, this is just......uhhhh.........lovely, Chip! Really, a fascinating 'almost' macro of this critter. Tara has me LOL - slugs leaning to fly? That's all we need! Great shot, Chip!
durleybeachbum
Wonderful and entertaining narrative, Chip! The slugs in my garden this year are mainly the size of kayaks, and I have NO idea why they should suddenly be so humungous. I have a good outside light, but the pleasure of walking barefoot in my garden at night is a thing of the past. That extra specially sticky slime is very hard to remove from skin: the soap in my kitchen is always the massage bar sort with grains of wheat in for extra abrasion!
blinkings
What a beauty.
Mondwin
Superb macro!!!Bravissimo!:DDD.Hugsxx Whylma
flavia49
fabulous text and shot
Feliciti
never seen this sort here !!great capture and details of this !!
helanker
YIKES! a leopard Slug!!! See, we have ALOT of slugs around here. With stribes, brown, grey, black exactly like licorice and Orange like a carrot. But a leopard looking slug, we dont have. Actually I took a shot af a brown slug 4-5 days ago. iT was crossing the road and was rather big too, so I took a couple of shots. :) I will post it another day. Excellent capture, Chip :)
kgb224
A wonderful find and capture. God Bless.
sandra46
FASCINATING SLUG! ;D
Orinoor
I have that kind of hate/fascination with slugs that is fairly common with gardeners. Admittedly, I do toss slugs, into my neighbors yard mainly, since he does not have a garden. I'm sure they just sneak back anyway. This is a gorgeous slug, a real dapper sort. I am positive there must be a business in slug slime, although I haven't figured out exactly what. Excellent photo!
MrsRatbag
Yes, I agree with Tara; slugs RELY on us to teach them flying, it's their only chance to ever experience this wonderful sensation. That's why they come around us to begin with. This one is just begging for liftoff! Excellent shot, Chip, I haven't seen one this large in a while!
praep
A great shot of a real beautyful slug. She looks real huge, we got some of them here but the big ones are dark red or black.
jac204
That is one big gastropod! Great capture.
snakemove
lovely shot, we have a lot of these slugs here in Holland. Also in our garden. All with a different pattern. I am not a fan of them.
danapommet
I've never seen anything that long before nor with a porthole. Super shot Chip and a great story. Dana