Science
Related: About this forumGiant, fluorescent pink slugs discovered
Ben Cubby
Environment Editor
High in the mists that shroud Mount Kaputar, near Narrabri in north-western NSW, scientists have discovered a secret world.
By day it is an isolated pocket of snow gums, wrapped in straggling native vines.
People tend to focus on the cute and cuddly bird and mammal species like koalas. But these little invertebrates drive whole ecosystems.
But on rainy nights, it is the domain of giant, fluorescent pink slugs - up to 20 centimetres long - and carnivorous, cannibal land snails that roam the mountaintop in search of their vegetarian victims.
The cannibal snail dines on other vegetarian snails.
''It's just one of those magical places, especially when you are up there on a cool, misty morning,'' said Michael Murphy, a national parks ranger for 20 years, whose beat covers the mountain top.
''It's a tiny island of alpine forest, hundreds of kilometres away from anything else like it. The slugs, for example, are buried in the leaf mould during the day, but sometimes at night they come out in their hundreds and feed off the mould and moss on the trees. They are amazing, unreal-looking creatures.''
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/one-will-really-amaze-you-the-other-just-eats-his-mates-20130528-2n9ik.html
MADem
(135,425 posts)Seriously, though...those things are the oddest looking creatures!
Warpy
(111,255 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,683 posts)I'd love to have a big fluorescent pink slug in my garden to eat the slugs that eat my tomatoes. That would be so cool.
There are no fluorescent pink animals in Minnesota, sad to say.
Oh, wait - maybe Michele Bachmann...
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)doesn't say if the snails eat the pink ones, tho.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,683 posts)Lochloosa
(16,064 posts)That is what you'll be saying when the slugs gets done with it.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)You'd probably think they were boring and wonder, "why can't we have one of those neat spotted garden slugs, instead?"
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... save your jar lids (like tops of mayo jars, pickles, jelly, etc.) Nestle the jar lids into the dirt (not below the surface, however) and all around your garden in several places. Now get a can of beer and fill each lid. You will be shocked what slithers over there to get a drink. They may get drunk and maybe a little greedy or something, but they climb in and drown. Have fun.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,683 posts)What I *WANT* is a big fluorescent pink slug!!
ReRe
(10,597 posts)frylock
(34,825 posts)EverHopeful
(185 posts)and I was gonna' try to find a picture to post but then, I don't know how to post pictures here so FAIL. Bet they'd look cute together though.
OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)does it taste as spicy as it looks?
sakabatou
(42,152 posts)Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)When you figure that it lives the days in the leaf litter, you would expect it to blend in instead of sticking out like a, well, pink slug.
I can only suppose that it has few predators. Poisonous? Bad taste?
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)tclambert
(11,085 posts)FSP for short. (Like ELO for Electric Light Orchestra.)
Here we come,
crawlin' out of the leaf mold,
Get the funniest looks from
Australian park rangers.
Hey, hey, we're the Pink Slugs,
Come and watch us slither and crawl,
We're just fluorescent invertebrates,
With nothin' to say at all . . .