Congratulations, Banana Slugs!
California finally has a state slug, just in time for Snail Search 2025
iNaturalist record: www.inaturalist.org/observations/38787598
Species: Ariolimax brachyphallus or Ariolimax stramineus
Location: San Luis Obispo County
Move over palm trees, because California has a new symbol: Ariolimax, the genus of bright-yellow (and sometimes green or brown, just like their namesakes), slime-covered mollusks commonly known as banana slugs.
Named California’s official state slug in 2024, these slugs are a pretty big deal: the largest species of banana slug can grow to around a foot long, and these massive mollusks can live anywhere from one to around seven years.
While you likely won’t find any of these beauties on your Los Angeles County Snail Search—banana slugs are “hella tight” with conditions in the redwood and Douglas fir forests from Santa Cruz to Alaska–if you do spot one, definitely share those pics on iNaturalist, just make sure it’s not an actual banana (pro-tip: bananas don’t crawl).
“Banana slugs are really stunning creatures,” says Dr.Jann Vendetti, Associate Curator of Molluscs at NHM. “Highlighting slugs as symbols of California elevates these incredible animals that are so vital to our ecosystems, and often the first creatures to feel the effects of climate change and habitat loss.”
To mark this momentous and legally binding occasion, we’re exploring some of the incredible features that make slugs so cool.
Shay Crowell/Jann Vendetti
Slugs and snails have thousands of microscopic teeth on a ribbon-like band called radula. They grind up things like leaves, animal feces, moss, and dead plant material, and then poo them out as soil humus—a dark brown nutrient-rich substance that helps the forests grow. Some slugs are also carnivorous, feasting on slower and smaller snails and slugs. Banana slugs are more than just gorgeous gastropods, they return nutrients to the soil.
From an observation uploaded by iNaturalist user Guerric Haché, no rights reserved.
Two sets of tentacles to explore the world. Slugs (and snails) have two pairs of retractable tentacles: optical up top, to ‘see’ light and movement, and sensory on the bottom to detect chemicals—kind of like the senses of taste and smell in humans.
By Andy.goryachev at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Adam Cuerden., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4028179
Banana slugs are also romantics at heart. Slugs are hermaphrodites, and they reproduce by exchanging sperm with their mate, but banana slugs sometimes spend hours in foreplay before doing the deed. Sometimes, their penises get caught, and they have to use their radula to chew themselves out of the embrace.
