WHITE-LIPPED BANDED SNAIL

Seen In Otley Today 100th edition!

These molluscs are hermaphrodites. They need to mate for their eggs to be fertilised, and prior to this each snail will try to stab the other with one or more love darts. These are made internally of similar material to their shells, and are stored in a dart sac. The process is a form of sexual selection. It doesn’t involve the transfer of sperm, with the benefit to any successful snail coming from the introduction of hormones from the mucus on the dart. These allow more of the sperm introduced later to survive. Fertilised eggs are buried in the soil.

Photo by Ann Riley