Resilience, robustness, and plasticity in a terrestrial slug, with particular reference to food quality

The terrestrial slug Deroceras laeve is abundant in diverse habitats spanning an enormous geographic range. This paper explores the hypothesis that much of this success may be attributed to phenotypic flexibility. Breeding experiments demonstrated that food quality had an enormous impact on growth and maturation rates, maturation sizes, reproduction, and longevity. Maturation rates and sizes covaried along a plastic development trajectory in …