Cepaea nemoralis in the winter
The survey of Cepaea nemoralis in Maryland that we started last summer is over. But then again, I was saying that to myself back in September, but have ended up making several more field trips since then. I made one last field trip yesterday and am now ready to finish the manuscript.
This juvenile was one of the few Cepaea nemoralis I could find yesterday. It had been hibernating under the leaf litter before I disturbed it. After taking a few photos of it, I returned it to soil.
Notice in the next photo the white epiphragm sealing its aperture. I don't know of any native northeast U.S. snails that build epiphragms reinforced with calcium carbonate; the natives only use slime to seal their apertures. The morphology of the epiphragm of Cepaea nemoralis must be under genetic control. Even the captive snails make them like that.
2 comments:
Very cool. Does the survivability rate increase when the aperture is calcium carbonate vs mucous?
Also it looks like you could use some hand mosturizer Aydin! :P
Well, the native snails have been surviving the northeast winters with only mucus epiphragms for quite a long time now. So I guess in this case it is good enough.
Yes, I could use hand cream. :)
Post a Comment