Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Some groups of snails that live in freshwater respire using gills, whereas other groups need to reach the surface to breathe air. In addition, some are amphibious and have both gills and a lung (e.g. Ampullariidae). Most feed on algae, but many are detritivores and some are filter feeders.
The excretory system of gastropods removes nitrogenous waste and maintains the internal water balance of these creatures, commonly referred to as snails and slugs. The primary organ of excretion is a nephridium. Drawing of excretory system of Lymnaea meridensis; renal tube and ureter in renal region extending between pericardium and mantle collar
Some freshwater pulmonates keep a bubble of air inside the shell, which helps them to float. [1] Many of the very small freshwater limpets which live in cold water have lost the ability to breathe air, and instead flood their mantle cavity with water. [1] Oxygen diffuses from the water to the snail's body directly. [1]
Land snails have a strong muscular foot; they use mucus to enable them to crawl over rough surfaces and to keep their soft bodies from drying out. Like other mollusks, land snails have a mantle , and they have one or two pairs of tentacles on their head.
The radula works like a file, ripping food into small pieces. Many snails are herbivorous, eating plants or rasping algae from surfaces with their radulae, though a few land species and many marine species are omnivores or predatory carnivores. Snails cannot absorb colored pigments when eating paper or cardboard so their feces are also colored. [3]
The majority of gastropods have haemolymph containing the respiratory pigment haemocyanin. This is a copper-containing protein that helps to carry oxygen, and gives the haemolymph a pale blue colour. In the freshwater Planorbid snails, however, the haemocyanin is replaced by haemoglobin, and thus their
Snail slime is a kind of mucus (an external bodily secretion) produced by snails, which are gastropod mollusks. Land snails and slugs both produce mucus, as does every other kind of gastropod, from marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats.
This species is a fast and voracious predator, hunting and eating other snails and slugs. [2] The rosy wolfsnail was introduced into Hawaii in 1955 as a biological control for the invasive African land snail, Lissachatina fulica. [3] This snail is responsible for the extinction of an estimated eight native snail species in Hawaii. [4]