Phase One: Pursuit
When a leopard slug wishes to mate, it communicates the fact chemically through its slime trail to any others who might stumble across it. As simultaneous hermaphrodites (an individual is both male and female), they are not choosy about their partners. When another slug finds the trail it will, if it also feels like mating, follow. Once it catches up with the originator it nibbles on its tail to announce its presence and intentions. The nibbled, having been alerted, begins a search for a location few other slugs would ever venture to. Thus, at a rate of ten or perhaps fifteen centimetres per minute, one of the most extraordinary rituals to be found anywhere commences.