OUT IN THE OPEN

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 127, 26 November 1945, Page 6

OUT IN THE OPEN

CURIOUS EGGS

(By I. W. T. Munro.)

Others than my neighbour, who interrupted his turning over of the com--•post heap to collect half a dozen specimens for me, must have seen similar' -things and wondered what they were. Glossy black, some round, some oval, the largest of the latter being quite a quarter of an inch long, they look at first glance like seeds, but when the soft skin breaks they are found to comtain a milky fluid. They are eggs of one or other ot the larger foreign slugs which, accidentally imported from time to time,, probably along with pot plants, are now far too common for anyone s We--ing, though the effect of their depredations is seen in the garden much; more often than are the creatures, themselves, for they, usually, hidethemselves from the birds during the day, coming out only at night, in. wet weather, however, they may some-.-times be found abroad by day.. Growing to a length of three inches,, they have appetites more than proportionate to their size, and their eggs, also ar.e large compared with the creature that lays them. Round Auckland there is an even larger one, the tiger slufe, growing up to four inches long,, which the gardener can view with, equanimity, for it is carnivorous Earthworms form a large part Of its diet, but it does not boggle over cat--ing any of its smaller relatives that it might come across. n^ The turning over of the compost heap ensured that at least one batch of eggs would come to nothing, for as soon as they were exposed the soft skins began to crump as the contents evaporate; by the end of the day the skins were hard and brittle.though still retaining their glossy blackness, and the contents were reduced to a thin yellowish coating on the inside.