Looking Like a Leaf - Native Leaf-veined Slugs

**A rainy day in the bush brings out the leaf-veined slugs**

Until I started volunteering on Mana Island, I’d never considered that we might have native slugs in Aotearoa with quite different habits from common garden slugs.

And then, while monitoring ngahere geckos, I encountered my first native leaf-veined slugs. I found plenty of leaf-veined slugs sharing the gecko hides during the daytime.

They were green and spiky, looking like half a gherkin! Their vein markings look like those of a leaf.

On wet nights we found them out and about sliding along the lizard-proof fence, on rocks, on tree trunks.

**Another rainy day, another leaf-veined slug hard to miss at eye height**

Now I knew about their existence, I began to spot them on the mainland and other islands too. Sometimes on rainy days, sometimes in damp, dark places.

What intrigues me is the variety of colouring and texture. Unlike the ones I’d seen on Mana Island, many were smooth and orange/brown with a bright colour around their breathing hole. Some were even translucent (see through).

The leaf-veined slugs pictured below were found on Te Wai Pounamu (South Island), Te Ika a Māui (North Island), Aotea (Great Barrier Island), Ulva Island.

Leaf-veined Slug facts

Native leaf-veined slugs eat fungi and algae, they won’t damage your veggie garden unlike slugs that have been introduced to Aotearoa from other countries
Leaf-veined slugs have only one pair of eye stalks, common garden slugs have two pairs.
There are many different species in New Zealand, some sources say 30, others say twice that number. Some leaf-veined slugs are endemic (found only here), others are also native to Australia and other Pacific Islands
A Māori name for leaf-veined slugs is putoko ropiropi