Selenochlamys ysbryda
Selenochlamys ysbryda, the ghost slug, is a species of predatory air-breathing land slug. It is a shell-less pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Oxychilidae, although when first described it was assumed to be in the Trigonochlamydidae.
| Ghost slug | |
|---|---|
| A live Selenochlamys ysbryda, head towards lower left | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
| Order: | Stylommatophora |
| Family: | Oxychilidae |
| Genus: | Selenochlamys |
| Species: | S. ysbryda |
| Binomial name | |
| Selenochlamys ysbryda Rowson & Symondson, 2008 | |
The species was first recognised from various sites in Wales and was formally described and named in 2008 by Ben Rowson, a taxonomist at the National Museum Wales (Amgueddfa Cymru), and Bill Symondson, an ecologist at Cardiff University. It has subsequently turned up at numerous further sites in South Wales and a few sites in England, but it is believed to be an introduction in the UK, occurring mostly in gardens.
Specimens likely to be this species have also now been identified from two sites in natural mountain forest in the Crimea in Ukraine, indicating that the Crimean mountains are within its native range.