Latest Slug Stories

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Disposable razors, disposable diapers, disposable cameras, disposable penises... err; wait a minute, disposable penises? Yes disposable penises. That’s what’s new in the world of science today. It seems a team of researchers from Osaka City University and Tokyo's Nihon University in Japan have discovered the first instance of creatures than can grow their own ‘disposable penises.’ This trait came to light after...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online A report published Aug. 22 in the open access journal PLOS ONE states that, despite the nature of their mating being very traumatic and biologically costly, the female sea slug will mate more often than required to in order to reproduce. The mating behavior of a simultaneously hermaphroditic species of sea slug was examined by Rolanda Lange of the University of Tuebingen in Germany, who led the study, along with colleagues. This...

If you were a blind, cannibalistic sea slug, living among others just like you, nearly every encounter with another creature would require a simple cost/benefit calculation: Should I eat that, do nothing or flee? In a new study, researchers report that these responses are linked to a simple circuit in the brain of the sea slug Pleurobranchaea. A heightened state of excitation in the neurons that control the animal’s attack and feeding behavior means it is hungry and will go for nearly...

A research study in which the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is participating has found evidence that suggests that the key to locomotion in snails stems from the animal's complex muscle movements, and not from its mucus, as had been previously thought. This finding could open the door to the construction of robots which could imitate this form of propulsion.The main aim of this study, carried out in collaboration with the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and Stanford...

Sea slugs found on a New Zealand beach held enough of a poisonous substance to kill laboratory mice, scientists said Wednesday. Researchers have not yet determined what the toxin is or whether it is responsible for the deaths of two dogs that apparently ingested something deadly on Narrow Neck Beach in Auckland, The New Zealand Herald reported. Paul McNabb, an algae specialist at the Cawthron Institute, said the next step is to determine if the toxin in the slugs is the same as the toxin in...

A collaborative team led by a University of Hawai'i at Manoa researcher has published the first-ever assessment of snail and slug species that are of potential threat to the nation's agriculture industry and the environment, should they ever be introduced in the U.S.The July 2009 article in the American Malacological Bulletin is authored by snail/slug biologist Robert H. Cowie of the UH Manoa Center for Conservation Research and Training (CCRT) and his team. They evaluated all known snail...

Hawaii's ongoing problem with invasive species such as snails and slugs, including their serious impact on plant nurseries and other aspects of the local horticultural industry, has been investigated and documented by four University of Hawaii at Mānoa researchers. It is the first documented baseline compilation of the distributions of all snail and slug species associated with the horticultural industry throughout the Hawaiian Islands.In an October-December 2008 article in the...

A Texas A&M University biologist says research shows sea slugs are solar-powered and behave like a plant. Biology professor James Manhart says the sea slug's main food source is a type of alga that they digest while retaining the plastids in the plant cells. The plastids continue to photosynthesize and provide food for the slug. Manhart said the a slug can survive for at least nine months by trapping solar energy and converting it into food. We found that the slug has at least one gene...

Researchers have reportedly discovered the method by which sea slugs are able to operate on solar power. "Elysia chlorotica," lives along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, and although it may not seem to be anything different from other common slugs, it has the ability to behave like a plant and harness energy from the sun.James Manhart, a biologist at Texas A&M University has been studying these tiny creatures for the past decade and, along with collaborators from several...

PORTLAND - American hip-hop act Atmosphere of Minneapolis, Minn., will be at Bull Moose for a meet-and-greet and signing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16. The event is free. Atmosphere's Paint the Nation Tour, with guests Abstract Rude, Blueprint and DJ Rare Groove, kicked off this September in the Midwest and will be at The Station Friday, Oct. 17. Together, rapper Sean Daley (Slug) and DJ/producer Anthony Davis (Ant) have released five albums. The Village Voice once wrote of Ant, "His dusty...