Shelled slug

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Shelled slug (Testacella haliotidea) is a large, air-breathing land slug in the family Testacellidae. It is carnivorous and hunts underground, eating earthworms. The slug is pale brown and can reach about 12 cm in length, while it has a small external shell at the back that is usually 6–10 mm long. The shell is oval and ribbed, with a tiny apex and a rounded opening; it has a whitish, pearly interior.

This species is common along the western Mediterranean, the European Atlantic coast, and across Great Britain except northern Scotland. Its distribution in Europe is not fully known, and it has been introduced to places such as Czechia, southern Australia, New Zealand, and parts of North America, where it is sometimes called the earshell slug. In the United States and Canada, records are incomplete (examples include Oregon, Wisconsin, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia). Shelled slugs are usually seen in spring in cultivated or disturbed ground. They spend most of their time underground, sometimes under stones or leaf litter, and hunt earthworms using their specialized radula teeth.

Conservation status: Least Concern.