211. Blue-grey Taildropper

They really are blue!! Or at least this one was.  Prophysaon coeruleum comes in a range of blues and greys so I was very pleased that my lifer was not some dull grey.  

We have had squares of cardboard out all over the property for the past three years and the checking has been a bit perfunctory unfortunately. Well, maybe not so much perfunctory as without much hope.   There has been a lot of peering for a whole lot of  snails, isopods or slug frass. Today that all changed! The little endangered slug (SARA listed) is just over a centimetre and a half long and was was snuggled in to the corrugations. This species has been found in locations around Leaning Oaks, but never very often and never in abundance. There seemed to be no reason that it wouldn't be here. 

The fabulous local organization, Habitat Acquisition Trust or HAT has a program enlisting the help of landowners to put out the cover objects and then monitor them to get a better idea of the Blue-grey Taildropper range. They have also had some great identification brochures made to help differentiate between this critter and some of the other common species in the Victoria area. Information on this program with links to the ID guide are here. 

There are times where a species may seem at first blush to be rare, but once there is a concerted effort to search, it may not be the case. With this species, the HAT work has shown that they do occur in more areas than previously thought - but that they are not a common slug. Inventory is the best way to assess how at risk a species is. 

Cardboard cover object.