[Taxacom] Are slugs subgroup(s) of snails

[Stephen Thorpe]

I can understand a semislug, but what the heck would a semi-limpet be like? A semi-coiled, semi-umbrella-like shell??? That would make our "paua slug" a semislug and a (terrestrial) semi-limpet, and a slug and a snail according to some definitions! We are heading into chaos, just like those database initiatives that presuppose perfect precision and logical consistency in nomenclature/taxonomy ... :)

________________________________________
From: Frederick W Schueler [bckcdb at istar.ca]
Sent: Friday, 4 September 2009 2:34 p.m.
To: Stephen Thorpe
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Are slugs subgroup(s) of snails

Stephen Thorpe wrote:
> Well, the best database of them all (Google) has lots of hits for
> semislugs (so we have divergent opinion yet again! :)

* it's only Creationists who are supposed to be made queasy by the
existence of intermediate states in an evolutionary process. There are
also semi-limpets...

fred.
=======================================
>
> http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=semislug&meta=&aq=f&oq=
>
> just forget about the few hits to do with the *S*outh-*E*ast *Mi*chigan
> *S*un *L*ocal *U*ser *G*roup!
>
> Stephen
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Frederick W Schueler
> [bckcdb at istar.ca]
> Sent: Friday, 4 September 2009 2:15 p.m.
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Are slugs subgroup(s) of snails
>
> Stephen Thorpe wrote:
>  > And what about semislugs?! Slugs with visible shells that they can't
> withdraw into completely! Come on, the whole point with common names is
> that they are not perfectly precise in meaning - that is why we need
> scientific names. There is no answer to the question: is a slug also a
> snail? Actually, this quite nicely illustrates the tendency of certain
> personality types, common on the list, to try to find perfect  precision
> where none exists, either in the Code, or in meaning of 'slug'...
>
> * a snail is a Gastropod with a coiled shell, a limpet is a Gastropod
> with a non-coiled, umbrella-like shell, and slug is a Gastropod without
> enough shell to retreat into. Both of the latter are polyphyletic
> life-style choices, and the former is hugely paraphyletic, so none of
> them need the name of an author appended.
>
> The above was written without consulting wiki-anything, or the EoL.
>
> fred.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>             Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
>           Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
>        RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
>     on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
>       (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> If we'd been meant to refer to species by made-up vernacular names,
>                 God wouldn't have created Linnaeus!
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
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--
------------------------------------------------------------
            Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
       RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
    on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
      (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca
------------------------------------------------------------
If we'd been meant to refer to species by made-up vernacular names,
                God wouldn't have created Linnaeus!
------------------------------------------------------------