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Banana Slug, Washington USA [OC]
(discuss.tchncs.de)
Took this one near a waterfall off a service road at the base of Mt. Rainier.
Bonus Shots:
One thing to love about banana slugs: the name is a perfect description of the color (sometimes) and size. The picture doesn't really put it completely into context, but these mofos are huge! They can grow up to 26 cm/10 inches long!
Also some of them have dark spots, just like an overripe banana!
(Not my photo sadly, as I've never seen a spotted one in the wild, but they're out there!)
Very cool! Now I want to go back and see if I can find some variants!
I just read today they're the second largest slug!
The largest is the Leopard slug, yeah? I saw one of them in Ireland a few years back and it had some really neat looking patterns.
Unfortunately you don't have to go that far to find them; leopard slugs are among the invasive slugs taking over the PNW (I find them in my garden constantly). I will admit, though, that they are super cool, especially when they're full grown. Watching them hunt is a hoot, like a slow-mo kaiju.
I wish I had put something down for scale! Cool to know they can get even bigger than this one (approx 15-17cm).