Land slugs in plant nurseries, a potential cause of dispersal in Argentina

David Díaz Gutiérrez ,Eduardo Daniel Daglio ,Micaela De Lucía ,David G Robinson ,Gustavo Darrigran

doi:10.32800/amz.2020.18.0173

David Díaz Gutiérrez , Eduardo Daniel Daglio + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2020.18.0173

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Abstract

Commercial plant nurseries may serve as causes of dispersal of land snails and slugs (native and non-native) through the trade of plants and the related transport of eggs and small individuals that may pass unnoticed. Studies on the possible role of plant nurseries as a potential cause of dispersal of slugs in South America are lacking. To explore the role of garden centers, we collected and identified slugs in 12 commercial nurseries in two cities in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eight species of slugs were found. Based on our findings we validate the existence of Deroceras laeve and Belocaulus angustipes for Argentina and confirm the existence of Ambigolimax valentianus, which was recently cited for Argentina. We recommend that plant nurseries be regularly monitored given that snail and slug species are accidentally spread through trade in plants. Dataset published through Zenodo (Doi: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4304621)

Highlights

Many gastropods have spread and naturalized in areas outside their native range due to human activities (Cowie and Robinson, 2003)
The number of species found was highest in the two most urban nurseries. In these two nurseries, we recorded species that were not found in the other nurseries, such as Limacus flavus (Linnaeus, 1758), Ambigolimax valentianus (Férussac, 1821) and Milax gagates (Draparnaud, 1801)
In San Pedro, B. angustipes was recorded in all the nurseries, being the most abundant species in three of them and the only species in one

Summary

Introduction

Many gastropods have spread and naturalized in areas outside their native range due to human activities (Cowie and Robinson, 2003). If there are no controls in place, these species may become pests in their new environments, causing damage to crops and decreasing production. They can transmit parasites to humans and domestic animals and may have negative effects on native flora and fauna (Barker, 1999). Both snails and slugs are potential pests, snails are more likely to be detected because of their shells. The dispersal ability of slugs is poor, both on a small and a large scale and is correlated primarily with anthropogenic activity

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