Why is this snail called the rosy wolf?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
June 25, 2003
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading: Click here.
Every garden has snails and slugs that feed under the cover of night selecting plants most prized and leaving trails that glisten in the morning sun. There is no disappointment quite like finding plants, so beautiful the day before, full of holes or eaten to the ground in the morning. But slimy little herbivores have their own marauding kind.
The rosy predator snail (Euglandina rosea Férussac) is a hermaphrodite native to the southeastern U.S. Their presence is usually only known by the empty brownish-pink fusiform (spindle-shaped) shells left after they have died or when they are seen aestivating (sleeping) through the dry season.
Although they have functional organs of both sexes, snails must mate to have their eggs fertilized. Each predator snail will lay twenty-five to thirty eggs in a shallow depression in the soil. If it does not fall prey to birds or even its own kind, the predator snail will live for two years. ("Snail-eating Snails", Kurt Auffenberg and Lionel A. Stange, Featured Creatures, University of Florida)
The rosy predator snail tracks down its prey. The snail extends its labial pads (lips) to sweep over the ground seeking the taste of a slime trail. When a mucus trail is found, the predator snail quickens its pace. Moving two to three times as fast as a normal snail or slug, the snail barrels-up behind its hapless victim. This ability to track and run-down its prey, gives this predator its other common name, the rosy wolf snail.
The prey is grabbed by the radula, the rows of tooth-like projections in the mouth. The radula moves like a machine-driven rasp. If the prey is small, it will be pulled whole into the mouth. If it is large, the wolf snail's radula rips chunks from the prey's body. Once the wolf snail has a hold on the prey, there is little chance of its escape.
Jim Miller and Bill Frank of the Jacksonville Shell Club have posted a great series of photographs of the rosy predator snail. To view the snails, click on the link:
http://www.jaxshells.org/eraj.htm
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images. Note the extended labial pads that look like an extra set of tentacles near the mouth.
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
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