Description: A small brown to dark brown slug with a brown sole and inconspicuously marked breathing pore. Found on marshy streambanks, lakeshores, fens and wetlands of all kinds to moderate altitudes. 15-25 mm.

World Distribution: A very widely distributed mollusc. Found naturally across the whole of Europe into Siberia as far east as the pacific and into northern North America. Distribution type: Circumpolar Wide Temperate (66).

Irish Distribution: Ubiquitous in wet places but not in very acid bogs or at high altitude.

Ecology:

• Found on wet ground of all kinds except the most acid or exposed
• Amphibious, surviving well for periods under water, as during flood events
• Occurs as a pest in heated greenhouses and horticulture generally

Key Identification Features:

• A small, brown to dark brown slug often with scattered darker flecks; paler, greyish forms occur widely in horticulture (see main photo)
• Mucus colourless
• Sole brown
• Keel short and truncate
• Respiratory pore not pale-ringed
• Respiratory pore towards the rear of the mantle

Red list status:

• Least concern (lc).

Distribution Map from NBN: Deroceras laeve at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Deroceras laeve at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Deroceras laeve | Classification: Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Agriolimacidae, Deroceras

Thumbnails for genus Deroceras