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Very unusual slug-like animal

19 years ago

Hello

My camera is broken has been out for repair for almost two months and is due back very soon, if it gets here in the next couple of days I will post a photo.

I will do my best to describe this animal which I found on the bottom of a tarp in my yard. It is 1/2" long and more or less diamond shaped (round at the anterior and pointy at the posterior) and appears much like a slug in that it is moist and somewhat sticky on the bottom and is soft bodied, however its dorsal side looks much like a caterpillar. The ventral half is light green and the dorsal surface is brown and has bumps along the sides.

Looking down at the dorsal side or at the ventral side (it is in a clear plastic bag) it appears segmented somewhat like a sow bug, but being slug like it isnt segmented. Looking at the ventral side thru the bag it is somewhat transparent and I can see right inside the animal. It is moving like a caterpillar where it lifts, shifts forward a section/segment, and places that segment down and repeats this motion until its entire body has moved a little bit and repeats this as it moves forward.

Don't know if anyone will find that description useful or not. This looks to me like some sort of leaf litter invertebrate but in all my years of critical outdoor observation and plant and animal collection and study I have never seen anything quite like this.

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