A novel anti-predatory mechanism in Indrella ampulla (Gastropoda: Ariophantidae)

Main Article Content

Karunakar Majhi
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2785-0091
Maitreya Sil
Aniruddha Datta-Roy

Abstract

Gastropods depend on their shells and slime for defence but they also have certain other strategies which serve as effective measures to avoid predation. This is an opportunistic observational account of individuals of Indrella ampulla (Ariophantidae) smearing their slime on the surface of their shells when agitated. Such a behaviour is novel to our knowledge and has not been reported earlier. This note will further add to the natural history observations of such animals and decipher the lesser-known facts about the defence strategies. 

Article Details

Section
Notes

References

Benson, W.H. (1850). Characters of several new East Indian and South African Helices, with remarks on some other species of the genus occurring at the Cape of Good Hope. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 5(27): 213–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/03745486009494916

Blandford W.T. & H.A. Godwin-Austen (1908). Fauna of British India, Mollusca (Testacellidle and Zonitidae). Taylor and Francis, London, 48–50 pp.

Deepak, V., K. Vasudevan & B. Pandav (2009). Preliminary observations on the diet of the Cane Turtle (Vijayachelys silvatica). Hamadryad 34: 166–168.

Mair, J. & G.R. Port (2002). The influence of mucus production by the slug, Deroceras reticulatum, on predation by Pterostichus madidus and Nebria brevicollis (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Biocontrol Science and Technology 12(3): 325–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/09583150220128112

Morii, Y., L. Prozorova & S. Chiba (2016). Parallel evolution of passive and active defence in land snails. Scientific Reports 6(1): 35600. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep35600

Narayanan, S. & N.A. Aravind (2021). Observations on natural diet and reproductive behaviour of an endemic snail Indrella ampulla (Benson 1850) (Gastropoda: Ariophantidae) from the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Natural History 55(47–48): 2961–2972. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2022.2032857

Pakarinen, E. (1994). The importance of mucus as a defence against carabid beetles by the slugs Arion fasciatus and Deroceras reticulatum. Journal of Molluscan Studies 60(2): 149–155. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/60.2.149

Pollard, E. (1975). Aspects of the ecology of Helix pomatia L. The Journal of Animal Ecology 44(1): 305–329. https://doi.org/10.2307/3865

Rollo, C.D. & W.G. Wellington (1979). Intra- and inter-specific agonistic behavior among terrestrial slugs (Pulmonata: Stylommatophora). Canadian Journal of Zoology 57(4): 846–855. https://doi.org/10.1139/z79-104

Teixeira, L., C.M. Cunha & M.R. Bornschein (2017). First record of the Japanese land snail Ovachlamys fulgens (Gude 1900) (Gastropoda, Helicarionidae) in Brazil. Check List 13(5): 703–706. https://doi.org/10.15560/13.5.703

Wenger, R. (2014). Cantareus apertus. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXC0M-q3ie0