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Slug banana slug
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Slug
Slug Great grey slug (Limax maximums).

slug

mollusk
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banana slug
banana slugPacific banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus).

slug, any mollusk of the class Gastropoda in which the shell is reduced to an internal plate or a series of granules or is completely absent. The term generally refers to a land snail. Slugs belonging to the subclass Pulmonata have soft, slimy bodies and are generally restricted to moist habitats on land (one freshwater species is known). Some slug species damage gardens. In temperate regions the common pulmonate slugs (of the families Arionidae, Limacidae, and Philomycidae) eat fungi and decaying leaves. Slugs of the plant-eating family Veronicellidae are found in the tropics. Carnivorous slugs, which eat other snails and earthworms, include the Testacellidae of Europe.

Marine gastropods of the subclass Opisthobranchia are sometimes called sea slugs (see opisthobranch).

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.