Category Archives: Snails
Unusual mating behavior alerts us to an invasion of giant slugs
A pleasant outdoor evening for Cari and Jason Reynolds was interrupted by the antics of some rather large slugs. The slugs had entwined their bodies, then suspended themselves from a stiff strand of mucus. Two large translucent structures emerged from … Continue reading
Posted in Junebug the hound, Snails
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Banana slugs
The hilly redwood forests of Santa Cruz are home to a spectacular gastropod, the Slender Banana Slug (Ariolimax dolichophallus). These sulfurous-yellow slugs are large: many are over six inches long. They creep through the forest floor and across trails in … Continue reading
Posted in Snails, Travels
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Lynn Margulis: an appreciation
Our experience of the world is mediated through stories. Stories (also called theories by those who need a patina of scientific respectability) tell us how the world came to be, how it works, and what its fundamental rules are. Once … Continue reading
Posted in Microbes, Snails, Trees
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Young snail
This snail was hiding under the broken edge of a fallen log, posed on an oak leaf. The lung is visible through the shell (the pulmonary vein makes an interesting pattern). This individual is probably a young Triodopsis (dark body … Continue reading
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Proto-holotype
The Field Museum in Chicago has kindly lent me the only known museum collection of the tiger-snail variety that I’m writing up as a new species. Genetic data indicate that this population is distinct and quite different from the other … Continue reading
Posted in Snails
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Cionella snail
This tiny snail is about the size of a grain of rice (5mm long). Chris Waldrup brought it to me after finding it under a log. The snail belongs to the genus Cionella, probably Cionella morseana (the genus also goes by … Continue reading
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Dick Cove
My Field Investigations in Biology class ventured into the old growth forest in Dick Cove (aka Thumping Dick Hollow, apparently named for a former inhabitant who built an ingenious corn-pounding device). In addition to measuring trees to quantify how the … Continue reading
Gastrodonta interna on the prowl
Early this morning in Shakerag Hollow the humidity was so high that water droplets drifted through the air. We were walking in a halo. The settling water ruined the invisibility of spider webs. This one hung ten feet above the ground. Snails … Continue reading
Posted in Shakerag Hollow, Snails
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Xolotrema denotatum and others at the Powdermill Nature Center
A dozen snail enthusiasts joined the American Malacological Society’s field trip to Powdermill, ably led by Tim Pearce, Head of the Carnegie Museum’s Section of Mollusks. Xolotrema denotatum was one of the twenty five species that we found. I have been wanting … Continue reading
Posted in Fungi, Plants, Snails, Travels
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