All About Banana Slugs John Pearse and Jan

All About Banana Slugs John Pearse and Jan Leonard University of California, Santa Cruz Habitat Food Color Predators Distribution Taxonomy and Sex and sexual selection UCSC Banana Slug Genomics class 1 April 2015 1988

WIDE RANGE OR HABITATS CONIFER FORESTS Mount Palomar, San Diego County DRY-LAND SPRINGS Mc. Laughlin Reserve, Napa County OPEN WOODLANDS Oroville, Butte County COASTAL ICE-PLANTS Pacific Grove, Monterey County

What do slugs eat? Lab: lettuce yams mushrooms zucchini beans apples cat food hamburger milk Field: mushrooms green shoots sorrel ferns ice plants hemlock milkweed poison oak humus soil feces

Slug colors - camouflage? predators Fremont Peak, San Benito County

Slug colors - camouflage? predators But who are the predators? garter snakes salamanders and newts birds and small mammals carnivorous snails and slugs Fremont Peak, San Benito County

+ Distribution of Major clademajor distributi clades of Ariolimax +

What about. Itsex is all about sex! Simultaneous hermaphrodites Complex mating behavior Copulate - internal fertilization or Don’t copulate but self Eggs laid underground 1 -2 month development Hatch as small juveniles.

A. Epiphallus californicus dissection Penis Vas deferens Ovotestes Vagina muscle Albumen gland Digestive gland Spermatheca Ovisperm duct (Common duct) Ariolimax M. californicus

Ariolimax Meadarion californicus A. californicus genitalia Epiphallus Penis retractor muscle Albumen gland Ovotestes Fertilization chamber Common duct (ovisperm duct) Penis sheath Oviduct Vas deferens (sperm duct) Seminal vesicle Vagina muscle Genital opening Mead 1943

Ariolimax columbianus/ buttoni stramineus Genitalia - all californicus Ariolimax Meadarion brachyphallus dolichophallus From Mead 1943

8 Ariolimax species 7 cladogr am CO 1 -16 S-Cyt. B Neighbor-joining cladogram Morphologically Distinct Molecularly indistinct 6 5 4 3 2 Molecularly Distinct Morphologically indistinct 1

NO PENIS! --- either Aphallate or Apophallate Ovispern duct (common duct) Oviduct Vas deferens Vagina Ariolimax M. californicus

What we know about apophallation 1. Very rare event, perhaps not in all species. 2. Self apophallation as well as partner apophallation. 3. Some individuals born without a penis. 4. Selfing occurs; isolated individuals produce offspring. 5. Copulation not necessary for reproduction.