The Chinese slug is a shell-less slug from East Asia, pale brown to grayish brown with a dark stripe down each side. In the United States it has been reported in Hawaii, and it is sometimes caught hitching rides on shipments of nursery plants.
Appearance
- Appearance
- About 2½ in (6 cm) long, though individuals range from about 1½ to 4 in (4–10 cm). Pale brown to grayish brown, with a dark stripe down each side and sometimes a faint third stripe down the middle of the back. Unlike garden slugs from Europe, it has no raised shield on the front of its back.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- forests
- farm fields
- gardens and parks
- Range
- Native to East Asia, including the Yangtze River basin of China, and also lives in Korea and Japan. It has spread to Taiwan, Hawaii, Java, and Russia. It has never been found living wild in California, but state inspectors there have repeatedly caught it on nursery plants shipped from Hawaii and Florida.
- Preferred conditions
- Lives in damp spots under plants, bark, rocks, and dead logs, and comes out to feed after rain.
Behavior
- Diet
- Thought to eat a wide range of living and decaying plants. In Japan it is treated as a garden and field pest.
Life cycle
- Reproduction
- Each slug has both male and female parts. They lay clusters of white, round eggs in damp rotting wood, leaf litter, or under stones.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- California's agriculture department gives it its "A" pest rating, a species it works to keep out of the state.
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