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10 Reasons to Love Slugs
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Close-up of a Costasiella kuroshimae nudibranch, also known as a leaf sheep, with bright green, leaflike appendages and a white face with black eyes on a green background. A colorful Felimare picta nudibranch, also known as the regal sea goddess, with blue, yellow, and purple markings, crawls along the ocean floor among algae. Close-up of several brown slugs eating another slug on a dirt path with small patches of grass, illustrating cannibalism in nature. Two great grey slugs (Limax maximus) mating while suspended from a slime thread, with bluish-white colored genitalia visible, against a blurred natural background. Close-up of a red slug, Arion ater rufus, crawling on a dead brown leaf, showing its textured orange body and tentacles. A Limax maximus, or leopard slug, with a tan body and dark spots, crawls on a green leaf. Gem sea slug (Goniobranchus geminus) with blue, yellow, and white bands and dark spots on its mantle, photographed on a rocky underwater surface in Thailand. Green Elysia marginata sea slug with ruffled edges and yellow trim rests on a red, textured underwater surface. Elysia cf. marginata sea slug after self-decapitation, showing its separated head and body on a white background. The head and body are greenish with black spots and orange edges. Sammy the Banana Slug mascot in a black UC Santa Cruz T-shirt poses with arms outstretched on a grassy area with trees in the background.
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Close-up of a Costasiella kuroshimae nudibranch, also known as a leaf sheep, with bright green, leaflike appendages and a white face with black eyes on a green background.
Costasiella kuroshimae nudibranch This beauty is also known as leaf sheep, sea sheep, and leaf slug.

10 Reasons to Love Slugs

The unexpected genius of life without a shell
Written by
Estela Morais Westphalen
Estela Morais Westphalen was an Editorial Intern for Encyclopaedia Britannica. Estela graduated from Brown University with a Master's in Public Affairs and a bachelor's degree magna cum laude...
Estela Morais Westphalen
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Who are these slimy gastropods that have been gliding across Earth since before the Ice Age? Slugs may look like little more than shell-less snails leaving a mucus trail everywhere they go, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. There are over 2,000 species of terrestrial and marine slugs (including nudibranchs, sea hares, and the out-of-this-world Elysia chlorotica). This peculiar group has evolved an astonishing array of survival strategies, superpowers, and oddities. They...

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