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Project Noah Nature School
Found in woods just outside of Des Moines. Fairly moist conditions.
I found this a couple years ago, but thought it would be a good one to add to the Iowan Biodiversity mission. Feel free to correct me if it is another species of slug. That was the closest I could find.
Spotted on Apr 12, 2012
Submitted on Sep 24, 2014
4 Comments
I think it should stay in your mission. They've been in the States for a fairly long time I think, and most certainly aren't just temporary visitors! The ones we have in Oregon tend to be darker orange, and some are downright black. The distinctive characteristic is how they hump up and hunker down. The banana slug doesn't tend to do that (plus the banana slug doesn't have those ridges). There are, however, a LOT of different slug species so a more accurate ID may yet come along.
Since it's non-native to Iowa, feel free to tell me to remove it from the Iowan Biodiversity mission
Thanks! I read that they were native to Europe. Apparently they made it here!
This is not likely a banana slug--they don't have the ridges like this guy has. This is closer to Arion ater, maybe one of its color variants.