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THE LIVING WORLD
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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The Living WorldÌýis a gentle weekend natural history programme, presented by Lionel Kelleway, which aims to broadcast the best, most intimate encounters with British wildlife.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN Ìý25min |
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PRESENTER |
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"The Living World is the next best thing to being there. Our contributors are skilled naturalists who are able to reveal those fascinating facts about animals and plants that you don't always find in books. It's like having a personal guided tour of the countryside, without needing to leave the house."
Lionel Kelleway
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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| Lionel Kelleway with Mary Seddon inspecting cabbage munching slugs and snails |
Slugs and Snails
It's late March when Lionel Kelleway ventures out into his garden after weeks of frost, snow and rain and discovers a treasure trove of slugs and snails hidden under the garden debris.
Whilst some gardeners are quick to reach for the slug pellets, Mary Seddon, a mollusc expert (or mallacologist) from the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, is fascinated by these creatures. She introduces Lionel to a world of love darts, anvils and mate-attracting slime!
Slugs and Snails belong to a group known as gastropods; a term which means "belly foot" and describes the way this group of animals creep about on their bellies. Of the 29 species in Britain, a few are carnivorous but most feed on living and decaying plant tissue. Slugs are descended from snails - in effect they are snails without shells - although they have an internal horny plate covering their breathing cavity.
Both slugs and snails have similar lifestyles and amazing habits as Lionel discovers. They produce slime to assist mobility; which in some cases contains compounds to lure potential mates or deter predators with its foul taste! The fastest snails are the speckled garden snails which can move 50m per hour compared with 58cm per hour of most other land snails. And molluscs can even move upside down - locomotion by suction.
Slugs and snails are hermaphrodite (contain both make and female sex organs). In spring snails use calcified "love darts" to inject each other and exchange sperm. Some slugs spiral one another and then launch themselves into the air like a pair of acrobats twisting and hanging together on a thick cord of slime whilst they mate.
When it comes to feeding, snails have a radula or ribbon-like tongue covered in horny teeth which they use to scrape lichen off walls and rocks and a shell which prevents them from drying out. They rely on their sense of touch and smell for finding food, having very poor eyesight.
And there's an old wives tale about slugs and warts: to cure a wart, rub it with a slug and then impale the slug on a thorn. As the unfortunate mollusc dies, the wart is supposed to wither away!
And finally, if you've got a slug or snail problem in your garden, then Mary's advice is to try a little caffeine and garlic around your plants! |
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