White worm-eating slug discovered in Wales

In keeping with the creepy crawly theme started by David today, here's a BBC video and story about the discovery of a new slug species. It's pure white and carnivorous, feasting on worms instead of the typical slug diet of plants and decaying matter.

Because it was found in Wales, it's been christened with a partially-Welsh name: Selenochlamys ysbryda. Ysbryd is the disemvowel-proof Welsh word for ghost. I think trolls should post their comments in Welsh from now on.

Worm-eating slug found in garden (BBC) (via Arbroath)

• [neurolux]

  “cwm” is an acceptable scrabble word. Originally from Welsh, I think it means hill. Along with “nth” these are good words to know when you don’t have any vowels.

• [midknyte]

  Super Slug

• [sabik]

  @#14: brr.

• [Kieran O’Neill]

  #13: We have them in South Africa, too. Apparently they’re distributed in a range from South Africa to the South Pacific.

  One of my life-defining moments was finding a Natalina cafra snail in the garden when I was 8, and watching it munch on smaller slugs and snails.

• [Anonymous]

  @12 Cwm is an anglicisation of cŵm, one of our words for ‘valley’ (unsurprisingly we have more than one). It’s the origin of the English placename component ‘coombe’ seen all over the West of England.

• [owenblacker]

  What JGriffiths said @#11.

  Though we make it even more awkward too — we can put any one of four diacritics on any of our seven vowels: áàâä éèêë íìîï óòôö ẃẁŵẅ ýỳŷÿ. And yes, there are minimal pairs that rely on the difference — mwg means smoke, whereas mẁg means mug (y’know, something you drink tea from).

  That said, every letter is pronounced in every word and every letter is pronounced the same way in every word (apart from Y, but we’ll gloss over that). And stress is always on the penultimate syllable unless otherwise indicated (with one of those diacritics). Tell that to someone learning English and they might hate you for it ;o)

• [Anonymous]

  How much you wanna bet this ends up in a Dr. Who (or Torchwood) plot?

• [gouldina]

  #14 How about “ych y fi”? It’s a Welsh expression of disgust and has the advantage of only having one (English at least) vowel.

• [Joe]

  Y’s being used as a vowel here, so you can still disemvowel any Welsh trolls.

  However, if Czech trolls show up, you’re in trouble.

• [Kendra]

  In Australia there are carnivorous snails. I’d like to see them do battle.

  On a side note, Welsh rocks.

• [RickB]

  Cywydd y Cedor
  Gwerful Mechain tua 1450

  Pob rhyw brydydd, dydd dioed,
  mul frwysg, wladaidd rwysg eriod,
  noethi moliant, nis gwrantwyf,
  anfeidrol reiol yr wyf,
  am gerdd merched y gwledydd
  a wnaethant heb ffyniant fydd
  yn anghwbl iawn, ddawn ddiwad,
  ar hyd y dydd, rho Duw Dad:
  moli gwalt, cwmsallt ceinserch,
  a phob cyfryw sy fyw o ferch,
  ac obry moli heb wg
  yr aeliau uwchlaw’r olwg;
  moli hefyd, hyfyd dwf,
  foelder dwyfron feddaldwf,
  a breichiau gwen, len loywlun,
  dylai barch, a dwylaw bun.
  Yno o’i brif ddewiniaeth
  cyn y nos canu a wnaeth,
  Duw er ei radd a’i addef,
  diffrwyth wawd o’i dafawd ef:
  gadu’r canol heb foliant
  a’r plas lle’r enillir plant,
  air cedor clyd, rhagor claer,
  tynerdew, cylch twn eurdaer,
  lle carwn i cywain iach,
  y cedor dan y cadach.

  Corff wyd diball ei allu,
  cwrt difreg o’r bloneg blu.
  llyma ‘ynghred, teg y cedawr,
  cylch gweflau ymylau mawr,
  pant yw hwy na llwy na llaw,
  clawdd iddal cal ddwy ddwylaw;
  cont yno wrth din finffloch,
  dabl y gerdd a’i dwbl o goch.
  Ac nid arbed, freisged frig,
  y gloywsaint, gwyr eglwysig
  mewn cyfle iawn, ddawn ddifreg,
  myn Beuno, ei deimlo’n deg.
  Am hyn o chwaen, gaen gerydd,
  y prydiddion sythion sydd,
  gadewch heb ffael er gael ced
  gerddau cedor i gerdded.
  Sawden awdl, sidan ydiw,
  sem fach, len ar gont wen wiw,
  lleiniau mewn man ymannerch,
  y llwyn sur, llawn yw o serch,
  fforest falsh iawn, ddawn difreg,
  ffris ffraill, ffwrwr dwygaill deg,
  breisglwyn merch, drud annerch dro,
  berth addwyn, Duw’n borth iddo.
  English here-
  http://www.resurgencecymru.org/cedor.html

• [mdhatter]

  What we need, #12, is a mod-proof exclamation of extreme distress and/or surprise and/or distaste.

• [Dillenger69]

  lair of the white … slug?

• [Jason Pitzl-Waters]

  Sy iawn yn diddori!

• [Antinous]

  Actually, I have one, but I’m not going to tell you.

• [Takuan]

  !!!!!!!!!!!!!

• [dros]

  as a welsh speaking reader may i add to your list of wonderful things: welsh vowels.

  A, E, I, O, U, W, Y.
  (ah, eh, ee, oh, yee, ooh, uh)

  Now don’t let anyone tell you we have have none – the extra ones come at no charge.

• [pauldrye]

  Iä! Iä! Ysbryd ftaghn!

• [jgriffiths]

  Vaguely proud/annoyed not to be the first Welsh speaker to point out that Y is a vowel in the Welsh language.

• [avraamov]

  that screen grab is the funniest thing i’ve seen in ages. can anyone tell me why? am i ill?

• [Nores]

  White. Slug. Eats worms.

  Sounds like my cousin Josh. I don’t think he’s Welsh though.

  Hell he could be. Boy ain’t right.

• [dainel]

  That thing appears to be only 1cm long (1/2 inch). How does it eat earthworms, many of which are somewhat bigger than that?