Triboniophorus graefei – The red triangle Slug

2 minutes with is a regular column featuring an interview with a ‘celebrity bushcarer’. For this issue, Peter Chrismas selected:

The Red Triangle Slug

Hello, my name is Triboniophorus graefei, but most people call me Red Triangle Slug. I can often be found on Bushcare sites across the Blue Mountains.

I am a quiet achiever and not often noticed, in spite of my distinctive and colourful appearance.

My favourite sites have a nice canopy of sclerophyll forest, with plenty of natural mulch, rocks and smooth tree trunks. My favourite food is microscopic algae, and I am very lucky to have a plentiful supply all around me. If I feel like a change, or I lose my way and find myself inside a human habitat, I also like to eat mould and I will do a fantastic job cleaning your shower curtain!

What Brought You To Bushcare?

I love being around for Bushcare! This is an amazing paradise around us, and it is really worth protecting. Also, I live here.

What are the challenges?

First of all, I’m a slug. Which means life can be hard for a small gentle creature like me. I am commonly mistaken for food by many of the birds and animals I share my world with. I like to keep out of the way if I can. If I have to be visible I try to look more like a leaf than a tasty snack.

Open sky above makes me nervous.

Although I am Australia’s largest native terrestrial slug (in fact, I can grow to 14 centimetres long). I am still rather a small creature. If you are walking through my world, please try not to step on me! Like other Molluscs, I am very soft and have no bones. Unlike many other molluscs,

I don’t have a nice cosy protective shell. I have to make do with any roof I can find to keep me safe and dry.

What are your favourite and most disliked plants?

My favourite plant is a nice Scribbly Gum. That pale, smooth bark is a great canvas for me to draw my distinctive squiggly trails. I’m also rather partial to grazing on the microscopic algae which grows there in abundance, and makes my life such a joy.

The plant I dislike the most would probably be Blackberry. It is overbearing, opinionated and very prickly in nature.

If you could invite four of the people who inspire you to dinner, who would you pick?

All the people who care for my habitat and friends inspire me! I probably wouldn’t invite any carnivorous birds. I would rather prepare the menu than appear on it.