Slimy Slug Sex

It’s probably safe to say that few people have given much thought to the mating rituals of the lowly slug. And that's really too bad, because hermaphroditic land slugs exhibit a quite extraordinary copulatory behavior, which is described and illustrated in delicious detail here. Most interesting of all, they sometimes engage in a post-mating ritual called apophallation, which you can see on video here (scroll to bottom). Ouch! If you still have an appetite for even more slug sex, I encourage you to view this wondrous video of the mating ritual. Isn’t nature incredible?

Credit: The above image of banana slugs is from Squid Rosenberg, courtesy of Flickr.com.