Brown slug

Mariaella dussumieri

Name means: “named after the French merchant Jean-Jacques Dussumier”

Eats: Plants Snails, slugs and wormsForests and woodsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The brown slug is a big land slug from India. It is yellowish brown or olive green, sometimes almost black, and covered with dark blotches. It has a tiny flat shell hidden inside its body.

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

The Western Ghats mountains of India and the hills of Sri Lanka

Length

20 cm (7.9 in)

Top speed

about 0.04 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?

Like other slugs, it eats plants. People worry it could harm farm crops if it spread to new countries.

Photo of Brown slug — Picture by Rohan Pinto. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

as long as 6 toy building bricks in a rowas long as 1 bananas end to endcould run across a dinner table in 90 seconds

How big is Brown slug compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

Brown slug about 0.04 km/h (0.02 mph)

A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)

A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)

A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

It can grow up to about 20 centimetres long, as long as a pencil.

Its little shell is thin and white and sits hidden inside its back.

Its scientific name honours Jean-Jacques Dussumier, a French merchant.

The United States is watching out for it, because it could become a garden and farm pest there.

you asked

Most asked questions about Brown slug

?How big is the brown slug?

It can grow up to about 20 centimetres long.

?Does the brown slug have a shell?

Yes, but only a tiny thin one hidden inside its body.

For bug experts

Scientific name: Mariaella dussumieri
Group: Snails, slugs and worms
Family: Ariophantidae
Classification: Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Ariophantidae
Lives on: Asia

Where the facts come from

Mariaella dussumieri (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 Rohan Pinto. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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