Snail Porn!

So I've been quiet on the blogging front. I'm retooling some of the web work that I've been doing in order to better fit with my ShinyNewJob [tm]. As such, some of the non-snail/geology content will be shifted to a new venue. There may be a new format for the snails, too at some point in the undefined future.

For now, I am providing a link to a video that I shot this past weekend. I had two adult Whitelip snails (Neohelix albolabris Say 1816) that were content to just explore their small plastic tank. It was a good life, as far as snails go. Occasional lettuce (they preferred romaine to iceberg or green leaf), carrots (they did not like the bagged "baby carrots"), and periodic munching of their paper towel substrate (they preferred the paper towel over the baby carrots). But it took about two months for romance to take hold, and for the first time, I got to watch them engaged in some mating behaviors.

Snail Love from Matt Kuchta on Vimeo.

I'm not sure if this embedded video is working properly - let me know if it works for you or not.

I set up a camera to take pictures every 30 seconds. I stacked the resulting 186 photos into a video file and have uploaded it to Vimeo (more snail/geo videos should be coming as I can produce them). Doing the math, that compresses about 93 minutes into a 16 second clip (about 300x speed). You can see them "exchange" genetic information several times throughout the interaction. I can't tell if one snail is exclusively "giving" and the other is receiving. This interaction continued from at least 8 in the morning until well after noon this past sunday. (Sting ain't got nothin' on these critters). I haven't seen any eggs laid yet, but I'll check back soon. I may add some "soil" to provide some better cover for the potential eggs.

Update: if the embedded video isn't working you can try the direct link: here.