Who likes wet Bank Holidays?

Finding a blip pic on a wet Bank Holiday proved to be a bit of a challenge. With no sign of the rain stopping there was nothing for it but to get on the anorak and boots and start walking in the hope of finding something.
Well I had barely gone a quarter of a mile before I spotted a black slug making its way across the road.
Blip.
They love damp moist conditions and we have certainly had that this May Bank Holiday Monday.

The black slug is also known as black arion, or European black slug.
Usually they cover themselves in a thick foul-tasting mucus, which serves as both protections against predators as well as a measure to keep moist

They are claimed to be mainly nocturnal and avoid exposure to sunlight though I have frequently seen them in broad daylight.

Slugs have a role to play in natures cycle for they are omnivorous, eating carrion, fungi, and vegetation (living and decaying).

Like all other species of the Arionidae family, the black slug, according to my Google research, is a hermaphrodite, meaning it can fertilize itself if needed, although a mate is preferred.
(Wonder how it decides?)

After mating, the slug lays eggs about 5 mm in diameter. The favoured location for eggs is a dark, cold, damp place such as a compost heap.

Quite a few animals eat slugs including
Hedgehogs, badgers, shrew, moles, mice, frogs, toads and snakes.


When picked up or touched, the black slug will contract to a hemispherical shape and begin to rock from side to side. This defensive behaviour confuses predators, and is unique in the Arionidae family.