Arion subfuscus
Species of gastropod
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arion subfuscus is a species of land slug. It forms a species complex with Arion fuscus.[1][2][3]
| Arion subfuscus | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Order: | Stylommatophora |
| Family: | Arionidae |
| Genus: | Arion |
| Species: | A. subfuscus |
| Binomial name | |
| Arion subfuscus (Draparnaud), 1805) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Description
(Original description in French) The animal is elongated and moderately thick. The mantle is slightly humped in the front. The neck is rather short, as are the lower tentacles. The upper tentacles are thick at their base and taper toward the top, which is globulous (or swollen). They are blackish, as is the upper part of the head, which is crossed by four longitudinal lines (or stripes). The mantle is granular, and the back is strewn with anastomosing ridges (ridges that interconnect like a net). The underside of the animal is whitish, and yellowish in the middle. The edge of the foot is grey and marked with small transverse black lines. At the tail, one sees overlapping lamellae (plates or folds). The colour of this animal varies. The mantle and the upper side of the body are always a fairly dark brown, and there is a black band on each side of both the mantle and the body.
However, variety α is coloured with a reddish tint, which is much more noticeable toward the middle of the mantle, and especially on each side of the body below the two black bands.In contrast, in variety β, the tint is ashen or greyish, against which the blackish network formed by the anastomosing ridges stands out on each side of the body.[4]
Distribution
It is native to Eurasia, and has been introduced to eastern North America.
