The love tangle of slugs

Abstract

A sequence of photos shows the phases of the acrobatic mating of two slugs belonging to the Limax corsicus group. Slugs, like snails and most pulmonate gastropods, are insufficient hermaphrodites; although each individual is equipped with both male and female reproductive organs, these molluscs cannot self-fertilize and, to reproduce, must mate with a partner of the same species, giving rise to particularly complex and spectacular amorous embraces.