Surfin' Slugs

[Malcolm Banks]

I was taking one of my frequent midnight sojourns by the pond a week ago and I spotted a large yellow slug moving towards the edge of a floating mat of Willow moss that was growing out from the pond edge. It then appeared (or so I thought) to slip off the mat of weed under the water. I thought it was done for, and at first it didn’t look happy, but then it started eating a piece of underwater plant. I stayed and watched it for 30 minutes more as it moved around feeding under the water, down to 10-15 cm in depth, before it emerged via the same weed from which it had entered.
The slug was a yellow Arion spp. ca 15 cm in length. I had never heard of this so I checked on the Net and discovered that Arion and indeed some other genera of slugs are known to spend some time underwater. Anyone else seen these surfin' slugs?
M

[2dogs2000]

My garden had far too many slugs in and I don't use slug pellets so one night I went out and collected the slugs and put them in a bucket of water to drown them. Got up the next day to dispose of them and there wasn't one slug in sight. I hadn't realised that they could survive under water. They are still wandering round the garden somewhere.