Selenochlamys ysbryda

Ghost slug
A live Selenochlamys ysbryda, head towards lower left
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Stylommatophora
Family: Oxychilidae
Genus: Selenochlamys
Species:
S. ysbryda
Binomial name
Selenochlamys ysbryda
Rowson & Symondson, 2008[1]

Selenochlamys ysbryda, the ghost slug, is a species of predatory air-breathing land slug. It is a shell-less pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Oxychilidae,[2] although when first described it was assumed to be in the Trigonochlamydidae.

The species was first recognised from various sites in Wales[3] and was formally described and named in 2008 by Ben Rowson, a taxonomist at the National Museum Wales (Amgueddfa Cymru), and Bill Symondson, an ecologist at Cardiff University.[4] It has subsequently turned up at numerous further sites in South Wales and a few sites in England, but it is believed to be an introduction in the UK, occurring mostly in gardens.[5]

Specimens likely to be this species have also now been identified from two sites in natural mountain forest in the Crimea in Ukraine,[6][7] indicating that the Crimean mountains are within its native range.

  1. ^ Rowson B. & Symondson O. C. (2008) "Selenochlamys ysbryda sp. nov from Wales, UK: a Testacella-like slug new to western Europe (Stylommatophora: Trigonochlamydidae)". Journal of Conchology 39(5): 537-552. abstract.
  2. ^ Neiber, Marco T.; Walther, Frank; Hausdorf, Bernhard (October 2020). "Phylogenetic relationships of ghost slugs (Selenochlamys) and overlooked instances of limacization in Western Palaearctic Limacoidei (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 151: 106897. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106897.
  3. ^ "Welsh rare bit: top 10 new species of 2009". International Institute for Species Exploration. State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  4. ^ "'Ghost slug' is a mystery – New species of slug surfaces in the UK". National Museum Wales. 10 July 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  5. ^ Rowson, B. (2014). "The Long Reach of the Ghost Slug". National Museum Wales. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  6. ^ Balashov, I. (2012). "Selanochlamys ysbryda in the Crimean Mountains, Ukraine: first record from its native range?". Journal of Conchology. 41 (2): 141–144.
  7. ^ Turbanov, I.; Balashov, I. (2015). "A second record of Selanochlamys (Stylommatophora: Trigonochlamidae) from Crimea" (PDF). Malacological Bohemoslovaca. 14: 1–4.