How can a small bug dart around in a slug's slime? Last year I saw a large slug in the garden, and when I looked closer there was a small creature moving around rapidly, and I mean really fast (hence my use of the word "dart" in the question title - it was no exaggeration!), on the slug's surface below the slime. What could this creature have been, and how on Earth could it have moved so fast through the slug's sticky slime?

Most likely a mite, I have seen these before.

They can move (swim) faster than the slug.

Probably _Riccardoella oudemansi_ since it is the only slug mite I can find a mention of.

Article on similar snail mite below.

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