We examined whether the terrestrial micro snail Vallonia excentrica Sterki, 1893 detects and follows conspecific mucous trails. A trail-layer snail moved on a transparent 5×5 cm plastic sheet to establish a mucous trail then was removed. A trail-follower snail of the same species was allowed to move on the same plastic sheet. Of 30 trials, 24 trail-followers encountered the laid trail. We compared with null models the distance that the trail-follower trail was coincident with the laid trail, and the turning angle of the trail-follower trail upon meeting the laid trail, to determine that V. excentrica follows conspecific mucous trails more, and showed sharper turning angles upon meeting a trail, than expected by the null model.
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1 January 2013
Do Micro Snails Follow Conspecific Mucous Trails? Experiments with Vallonia excentrica (Pulmonata: Valloniidae)
Cooper T. Johnson,
Timothy A. Pearce
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