Spanish slug | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
(unranked): |
clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura |
Superfamily: | Arionoidea |
Family: | Arionidae |
Genus: | Arion |
Species: | A. vulgaris |
Binomial name | |
Arion vulgaris (Moquin-Tandon, 1855) |
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Synonyms | |
Arion rufus var. vulgaris Moquin-Tandon, 1855 |
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
Arion rufus var. vulgaris Moquin-Tandon, 1855
Arion lusitanicus auct. non Mabille
The Spanish slug, also known by its scientific name Arion vulgaris, more commonly known in English-speaking countries under the incorrectly applied Latin name Arion lusitanicus, is a species of air-breathing land slug, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Arionidae, the roundback slugs.
They can lay up to 400 eggs a year.
This is a highly invasive slug species. It is often considered a pest, not only in areas where it has been accidentally introduced, but even in places where it is indigenous.
The native distribution of Arion vulgaris is not exactly known. Some sources have claimed it originates in northern Spain, western France and southern England, but provided no published references for these assumptions. In Britain the slug was first recorded in 1954, which does not indicate native distribution there. Reliable records from Spain probably do not exist. Moquin-Tandon described the species originally from France without exact indication of the locality, presumably western or southwestern France.