The mucus of the caudal gland of Laevicaulis alte was investigated histochemically to determine the nature of mucus and to find out variation in it during the life cycle of the slug. In the common garden slug, Laevicaulis alte, the caudal gland is situated on the dorsal side near the posterior end of the foot. The gland consists of granular columnar epithelial cells secreting mucus which is discharged into the lumen of the gland. The mucus exhibits intense staining reactivity towards all the histochemical techniques when employed in the investigation on the sexually matured animal, whereas its staining reactivity in the investigations on the very young animal is very slight. It increases in case of the sexually immatured animal, and reaching maximum in the matured animal. The composition of the mucus from caudal gland was histochemically analysed and was found to consist of acid mucopolysaccharide, neutral mucosubstance, and sulfomucin. These mucosubstances show variation in their concentration during the life cycle of the animal.
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