Fascinating slug mating process photographed in North Okanagan

Enderby farmer Marilyn Anions saw something unusual while out walking her dog early in the morning this summer, and rushed back to her house to get a camera.

Two leopard slugs were suspended by strings of mucus from a long grass stem engaging in a fascinating mating process.

“I saw these white translucent organs they were swinging around at each other, they’re actually penises but I call them reproductive organs,” she said. “The organs found each other and the slugs joined into an umbrella shape and they were twirling around, moving all the time.”

Anions observed the slugs for roughly 20 minutes until they disengaged and parted ways.

“It was interesting, they were kind of grazing on each other’s mucus before departing,” she said.

Originating in Europe, the leopard slug is an introduced species in North America known for its unique mating ritual, according to The Animal Facts.

Pairs climb onto a rock or tree then lower themselves down on a mucus rope and intertwine their bodies in a counter clockwise direction.

The slugs are hermaphroditic with each having both eggs and a penis that comes out from a reproductive opening behind their antennae that they use to exchange sperm. Following mating one slug will eat the mucus rope.

Sperm is stored for months or years before eggs are laid in the soil in groups of up to 100.

The slugs have an elongated body up to 7.9 inches long covered with slimy mucus and patterned with black spots. A top pair of tentacles are used to detect light while a bottom pair detects smell. They eat fungus, plants, other slugs and animal feces.

The slugs are typically active at night, often after a rain.

“This is the first time I’ve seen them mating, maybe we’re missing a lot of these interesting natural phenomena that happen at night,” Anions said.