Monkey head dancing. By Nathaniel.

Nathaniel age 8

Pleasant Pheasant

We had a pleasant pheasant in our backyard.

Amazing predatory slugs!!

When the word "slug" comes to mind, many of us think of something slow, something humble, something that could only avoid predation if it were poisonous or just very, very, bad tasting - and never something that could catch prey of any kind, let alone keep pace with it! But not so! Behold, the amazing predatory slug!

Here we see the voracious predator having successfully wrestled it's prey into submission; thoroughly immobilizing and entrapping it's prey in sticky slime. Soon the digestive juices secreted through it's pharynx will begin to act, dissolving and externally digesting it's prey. And here is video from this astonishing natural drama captured by a Japanese amateur wildlife filmmaker: This "slug" is in the strictest sense not a "slug" at all (slugs being mollusks), but rather a member of the Family Geoplanidae, commonly called land planarians. Planarians are a type a flatworm, but don't freak out! These little guys are completely harmless to humans.

There are many interesting facts about these amazing little critters! Some are known to hunt by picking up chemical signals left by their prey. They eat just about any other little bug that might be crawling along the ground, such as earthworms, mites and spiders, snails and slugs, all types of insects, and even each other! They can grow up to 20 cm, that's nearly 8 inches! Some kinds have their eyes on their "tails" instead of their "heads" (how the scientists tell which is which, I have no idea). And although they can lay eggsacks, their primary method of reproductive system involves breaking off bits of themselves, somehow... something I don't entirely understand, but it's still interesting! They also come in many colorful varieties:

But even with all these interesting facts, land planarians are a poorly known and understudied group of animals. I could find very little specific information about them on the internet!

More videos of interest:

• A land planarian eating a moth
• a hammer-head land planarian slithering on moss
• a stripy one (apparently a juvenile?)

More on how it eats: It's pharynx (it's "throat") comes out of it's "belly" as seen here (warning! TOTALLY GROSS!!!! BLEH!! YUK!!)