10 Reasons to Love Slugs

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Images

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.

10 Reasons to Love Slugs: Media

The unexpected genius of life without a shell

Images

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.

© Kittisak Songprakob/Getty Images

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.

Felimare picta nudibranch

Meet the regal sea goddess sea slug.

© Sakis Lazarides/stock.adobe.com

Close-up of several brown slugs eating another slug on a dirt path with small patches of grass, illustrating cannibalism in nature.

Slugs eating a slug on a path

Recycling at its finest.

© Christophe Lehenaff—Moment/Getty Images

Two great grey slugs (Limax maximus) mating while suspended from a slime thread, with bluish-white colored genitalia visible, against a blurred natural background.

Limax maximus mating

Leopard slugs with bluish-white colored genitalia hang on a thread of slime.

© Kurt Kracher—imageBROKER/Getty Images

Close-up of a red slug, Arion ater rufus, crawling on a dead brown leaf, showing its textured orange body and tentacles.

Arion ater rufus

Spot the red slug's hole and tentacles.

© AlessandroZocc—iStock/Getty Images

A Limax maximus, or leopard slug, with a tan body and dark spots, crawls on a green leaf.

Limax maximus

A leopard slug on a green leaf.

© pixs:sell/stock.adobe.com

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.

Goniobranchus geminus nudibranch

A gem sea slug on a rocky underwater surface.

© portioid

Green Elysia marginata sea slug with ruffled edges and yellow trim rests on a red, textured underwater surface.

Elysia marginata

Not a plane, not a bird, it's the slimy super sea slug.

© Zack's Scuba Diary/stock.adobe.com

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.

Elysia marginata (after autotomy)

An Indo-Pacific sea slug after self-decapitation.

Sayaka Mitoh, Yoichi Yusa; Nara Women's University

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.

Sammy the Banana Slug

Banana slugs are such a hit at the University of California, Santa Cruz, they celebrate...

UC Santa Cruz

A brightly colored Hexabranchus sanguineus, or Spanish dancer sea slug, swims near the water surface, showing vivid red and blue patterns against a black background.

Hexabranchus sanguineus

This graceful specimen is also known as the Spanish dancer sea slug.

© Paul Starosta—Stone/Getty Images