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Sticker of Mauge's slug
Bug card No. 2789 of 4,939

Mauge's slug

Testacella maugei
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

Mauge's slug is a big slug with a tiny shell on its back end, like a little fingernail. It is brownish with brown and yellow spots and a yellow underside. Unlike most slugs, it is a hunter that eats other animals.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect at all, it has no legs! But kids find it on every bug hunt, so it lives in Bug Wiki too.
Lives in
Western Europe and North Africa, along the Atlantic coast from Morocco to Britain and Ireland
Length
6 to 12 cm (2.4 to 4.7 in)
Top speed
about 0.03 km/h (0.02 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. Wash your hands after touching any slug.
What does it eat?
It is a meat-eating slug. Shelled slugs like it hunt earthworms in the soil.
For real!Photo of Mauge's slug
Picture by Kieren on behalf of http://www.amentsoc.org. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Mauge's slug about 12 cm long (4.7 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 4 toy building bricks in a rowabout as long as your handneeds 2 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Mauge's slug compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its little shell sits at the back of its body and is only about 1.5 centimetres long, far too small to hide in.

2

When it crawls, its body is wider at the front and narrower at the back, a bit like a cone.

3

It lives on islands in the Atlantic Ocean too: the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

4

It breathes air and lives on land.

you asked

Most asked questions about Mauge's slug

?What does Mauge's slug eat?

It is a hunter that eats other animals. Shelled slugs like it mostly eat earthworms.

?How big is Mauge's slug?

It is about 6 to 12 centimetres long, with a tiny shell at the back.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Testacella maugei
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Testacellidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Testacellidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa

Where the facts come from

  1. Testacella maugei (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Kieren on behalf of http://www.amentsoc.org. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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