Northern dusky slug
The northern dusky slug is a brown roundback slug. It can be dark brown, olive, orange or bright reddish orange. Its slime is special: it is yellow-orange.
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Fun facts
It is most busy at dusk, when the light fades.
In winter it burrows into the soil, and in summer it hides from the dry heat.
It usually lives only 8 to 12 months.
It is the most common slug brought from abroad in eastern North America.
It looks just like its western cousin. Scientists can only tell them apart by their genes or inner organs.
Most asked questions about Northern dusky slug
?How big is the northern dusky slug?
About 5 to 7 centimetres long.
?What does the dusky slug eat?
Almost anything: fungi, old leaves, fruit, dead insects and worms, and animal poo.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Arion fuscus
- Group
- Snails, slugs and worms
- Family
- Arionidae
- Classification
- Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Arionidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Dusky arion, Dusky slug, Northern dusky arion
Where the facts come from
- Arion fuscus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Holger Krisp. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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