Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!
Here's some snail pr0n for your enjoyment:

Snail Love from Matt Kuchta on Vimeo.

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.

Snail Luvin' update

Succinea cf. ovalis crawling up the side of the tank. The shell is about 1cm long, not quite maximum size for this species. The yellow splotches were from a pigment marker I tried to use to tell individuals apart, but it rubs off too easily.

Last month (11/30), I mentioned that two of my Succineid snails (one very large individual and an intermediate-sized one (as above) were mating. I didn't get any photos of the dirty deed, but here's an update:

•I found a clutch of about 50 eggs in the tank on Dec. 3rd. They were just below the leaf litter in a little pile.



•The larger snail of the mating pair died about 5 days later. The tank they were in was a little dry, but none of the other snails perished. It's now sitting in alcohol, awaiting dissection to confirm it's species (succineids are notoriously difficult to ID to genus, let alone species without soft tissue [i.e. genitalia], so I was hoping to get the chance to get a peek at the snails naughty bits...).

So this brings me to the point of my post, aside from some neat succineid biology: many species of snails are semelparous. That is to say, they only reproduce one in their lifetime. Other snails are iteroparous (multiple reproductive cycles). Most succineids have been reported to be semelparous, and it appears this is the case for this particular species from Duluth. One interesting note, however, is that one individual who took part in mating is (as yet) alive.

I'm guessing that the large egg clutch was produced by the larger snail, and the sperm was provided by the smaller snail. This could have a distinct advantage in snail survival. By providing sperm at least once (more than once, perhaps?), the snail can reproduce at least twice - once as a sperm donor, once as the egg donor. Thus increasing the total number of individuals with the parent's genetic material. I have more to say about itero- versus semelparity, but that will have to wait until after I get some of my PhD data published. Next up: amino acids from fossil succineids!