California banana slug
Ariolimax californicus
Eats: Leftovers and dead thingsSnails, slugs and wormsForests and woodsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin
The California banana slug is a slug, a snail without a shell. It lives in the hills around San Francisco in California.
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 coast hills of the San Francisco Peninsula in California
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Wash your hands after touching one, because slug slime is very sticky.
What does it eat?
Banana slugs eat dead leaves, mushrooms and other bits of plants on the forest floor.
How fast is it?
California banana slug about 0.02 km/h (0.01 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
1
Every banana slug is both a mum and a dad at the same time.
2
It was first described by J. G. Cooper in 1872.
3
It looks almost the same as other banana slugs. Scientists have to look very closely to tell them apart.
you asked
Most asked questions about California banana slug
?Is the California banana slug dangerous?
No. It is harmless, but its slime is very sticky.
?Where does the California banana slug live?
In the coastal hills around San Francisco in California.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ariolimax californicus
- Named by
- Cooper, 1872
- Group
- Snails, slugs and worms
- Family
- Ariolimacidae
- Classification
- Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Ariolimacidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Ariolimax californicus (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 Cjziems. CC BY 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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