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Language: English with bilingual abstract in English and Greek
The present paper is the first thorough study on the slugs of the whole of Greece. lt is a survey of all the species recorded from this area. After previously synonymizing and explaining some of the problems of taxonomic nature, the occurrence of 56 species has been ascertained in this area. The Slugs of Greece provides detailed descriptions of all the taxa from families to species, including taxonomy, external morphology, taxonomically useful characteristic features of the reproductive and alimentary system and, to a lesser degree, of the muscular system, as well as bionomics, distribution and all the known localities. The majority of the descriptions have been supplemented with a commentary chapter which comprises all the author's doubts and suggestions along with special notes which may help the reader with identification or to form opinion about questionable points. The Slugs of Greece includes keys to all the taxa, drawings of the external appearance, structure of the genitalia, and the alimentary system when necessary, as well as maps of localities with the international UTM grid. The author has not managed to establish the occurrence of species that were probably misinterpreted by authors of former publications on slugs. A considerable number of species evoke the author's doubts, especially a few slugs whose descriptions do not enable interpretation and also in the case of which there are no evidential specimens or typi available. Although these taxa have not been ranked among the Greek fauna, nevertheless they have been discussed. The final part of The Slugs of Greece comprises general ecological reviews as well as a fairly detailed zoogeographic analysis including notes on the present distribution, and comments concerning the origin of different zoogeographic elements and the causes of currently established range limits. The present monograph is based on material collected by the author himself during field studies conducted in Greece between 1979 and 1980, on rich material obtained from many collectors, as well as on all accessible European museum collections.
