Arion rufus

occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

Canada

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

United States

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: (>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)) It occurs in Canada (Forsyth, 2004), Europe and the United States but is native to western and southern Europe (Roth and Sadeghian, 2003).

Central and W Europe, N Italy.

External: Slug usually reddish, but also brown, orange or black; foot-fringe nearly always red to yellowish brown; tubercles large and elongate; sole light grey or cream to reddish.

Internal: Epiphallus not much wider than vas deferens; oviduct narrow; spermatheca spherical; oviduct connects to atrium between vas deferens and epiphallus; long upper atrium and big internal ligula; atrium approximately same diameter as spermatheca.

Juveniles: pale yellowish to light orange with dark head, tentacles blackish brown, sometimes with pale colour bands.

Eggs: 5 x 4 mm; opaque; turn pearly white to brown with age (Quick 1960).

Up to 150 mm long, exceptionally 180 mm.

Natural humid forests and humid meadows, margins of water bodies, swamps, also in cultivated areas until the 1970s when it was replaced by Arion vulgaris/lusitanicus. In Britain mainly in lowlands and man-made habitats in southern Britain and Ireland.

Habitat Type: Terrestrial

Non-Migrant: No. All populations of this species make significant seasonal migrations.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Feeds on green and rotting plants, mushrooms, faeces and dead animals.

Rocks from side to side like A. ater when a potential enemy perturbs it (Quick 1960).

Life cycle 1 year. Reproduction in summer by copulation, occasionally also by self-fertilization, up to 500 eggs in several clutches are laid in autumn, juveniles hatch after 1 month and reach maturity in the next summer after 9-10 months.

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.

There are 4 barcode sequences available from BOLD and GenBank.  Below is a sequence of the barcode region Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI or COX1) from a member of the species.  See the BOLD taxonomy browser for more complete information about this specimen and other sequences.

Download FASTA File

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 4
Specimens with Barcodes: 13
Species With Barcodes: 1

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

Rounded Global Status Rank: G4 - Apparently Secure

Reasons: It occurs in Canada (Forsyth, 2004), Europe and the United States but is native to western and southern Europe (Roth and Sadeghian, 2003).

Increasingly rare, disappeared nearly completely from culticated areas. Originally widespread and frequent, but has been replaced by Arion lusitanicus in many regions.

Decreasing in Bavaria, vulnerable in Austria.