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hyaenija — Long-Tailed Semi-slug (Ibycus rachelae)
#animal #biology #borneo #bug #colorful #copic #gastropod #greenninja #invert #invertebrate #markers #mollusc #mollusk #ninja #psychedelic
Published: 2018-04-06 02:11:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 652; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 0
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Description
This guy and his friends are available as a set of stickers on my Etsy!This small green creature isn't actually a snail or a slug, but something in-between. A semislug! It has a little shell that isn't quite big enough to withdraw into. This species lives in Borneo and has the common name of the "long-tailed slug" or the "green ninja slug."
Materials: Copic sketch markers, Faber-Castell PITT artist pens, white uni-ball Signo gel pen
Tumblr | Etsy | Horror Prints | Instagram | Instagram (Snail Art)
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Comments: 2
From what I can find, it seems that some websites have been calling it that because this species uses love darts. Love darts are calcified spear-like structures that some types of land slugs and snails use in reproduction. When these types of snails/slugs mate, they try to spear each other with their darts. They are hermaphrodites, and this spearing is actually a weird form of sexual selection. Basically, the dart has hormones on it that increase the chances that the snail/slug that gets speared will end up producing the offspring of the snail who speared it. It's kind of an unusual thing and is totally separate from the actual mating (which happens afterwards). So, this type of slug engages in this activity.
Essentially, they're calling this slug a "ninja" because the dart-stabbing tactics are "ninja-like." I'm not entirely sure why this slug gets this special name though because many, many slugs and snails do this exact thing. It looks like the people who originally described this species didn't give it a common name, so I'm guessing that this name probably wasn't given by someone who really studies snails (since it's a little misleading to imply that this slug does something really unique when it doesn't). Some website probably just came up with this name in order to make this guy seem more interesting and it stuck. At least, that's my guess. It doesn't really matter though because it's just a common name and those typically aren't very important to begin with.
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