Country diary: on the trail of the monster mollusc

East Dartmoor, Devon: Lurking in the woodland is an elusive member of the invertebrate night shift - the ash-black slugGardeners, look away now. There are slugs in all directions, scattered by the dozen across the damp ground like wine gums - lemon yellow, apricot orange, pale pear, glossy blackcurrant.I stoop to check the appearance of the darker individuals, only they are tiddlers compared with the species I am searching for. I press on, following my torch beam beneath the woodland canopy in the Dart Valley. Where the track passes through a stand of oak trees I inspect the mossy tangles of roots and furrowed trunks. This is a good place to look, I'm told by the local entomologist John Walters. Continue reading...