Limax maximus

L. maximus will feed on living plants and is capable of inflicting significant damage to garden plants. Theobald (1895) listed L. maximus as one of the three most destructive species of slug in Britain (along with Deroceras reticulatum [as Limax agreste ], and Arion ater), without any justification. Taylor (1902-07) did not cite L. maximus as a pest, although he stated that it would eat young garden plants (but preferred fungi). White (1918) considered L. maximus a major pest of cultivated plants and mushrooms. For the most part the recognition of L. maximus as a pest of cultivated plants and cultivated mushrooms has diminished since the early 20 th Century, in large part because it has become widely appreciated that other slug species (e.g. Deroceras reticulatum, Arion hortensis) are more pestiferous and the predominant cause of damage in the garden. Due to its large size, L. maximus is often a conspicuous member of the garden fauna and thus often erroneously assumed to be responsible for any damage observed.;There have been no quantitative studies that determine the relative contributions of L. maximus to plant losses occurring in gardens due to slugs. Nonetheless, some authors continue to mention L. maximus as a serious garden pest (e.g. Pirone, 1978, Stange, 1978, Ebeling, 2002, Kozlowski, 2012a,b, Texas Invasive Species Institute, 2004).;The greatest potential for plant damage by L. maximus in the agricultural sector is in protected cropping, such as in glasshouses and greenhouses, or where crops occur near other dense vegetation, as the high moisture conditions and availability of daylight resting sites are highly favourable to high densities and activity. Nonetheless, there are no quantitative data available to implicate L. maximus as a significant pest in these cropping situations.;In arable fields L. maximus rarely occurs at densities sufficient to present risk to crops.;Numerous cultivated plants have been recorded as being damaged by L. maximus, but the literature is clearly not comprehensive. The significance of L. maximus as a pest in commercial mushroom beds has greatly diminished with modern mushroom cultivation practices.;In non-agricultural areas, L. maximus feeds on a variety of plants (e.g. on Coincya monensis, Hipkin and Facey, 2009) and may cause plant mortality, especially in the seedling stage. For the most part this herbivory by L. maximus goes unnoticed in these situations and there is very little published information on its ecosystem-level significance. However, recent experimental work has shown that L. maximus makes a significant contribution to herbivory on seedlings in higher elevation, subtropical to temperate rainforests in Hawaii (Joe, 2006, Joe and Daehler, 2008) and in boreal forests in North America (Noel, 2004, Holloway 2008, Humber, 2009, Moss and Hermanutz, 2009, 2010, Gosse et al., 2011) which may have implications for plant recruitment in both forest systems.;It is also recognized that L. maximus feeds extensively on fungi, especially fungal fruiting structures, in woodland and forest systems (Elliott, 1922, Fršmming, 1940, Keller and Snell, 2002, Halbwachs and BŠssler, 2015). However, the ecosystem-level significance of this mycophagy is unknown.