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Category Archives: molluscs

A huddle of snails

12 Saturday Feb 2022

Posted by sconzani in molluscs, winter

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Garden snails, molluscs, over-wintering snails, snail

The secrets of life for over-wintering snails:
1) find a friend, or twenty, to huddle with
2) create a mucus seal around your shell opening to conserve moisture
3) slow down your metabolism and snooze.

220212 snail huddle

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Tricksy snails

19 Wednesday Jan 2022

Posted by sconzani in molluscs

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British snails, land snail, snail, spiral snail

Snails are much more difficult to identify than you might imagine, especially when you don’t – as I didn’t – examine all the relevant parts of the shell that help with identification. The opening of the shell, for example, often holds key features. In this particular case, I was happy just to watch this tiny creature going about its daily life.

220119 snail

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Green cellar slug

01 Thursday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in molluscs

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British slugs, Green cellar slug, Limacus maculatus

Thanks to the expert whose voluntary task it is to verify any slug records input to the local biodiversity records database, I now know that what I thought was a Leopard slug (Limax maximus) is actually a Green cellar slug (Limacus maculatus). The expert kindly explained: ‘You are far from the first person to have made this misidentification. Limax maximus is brown, rather rougher and dryer in texture than either of the Limacus species,[and] is usually solitary.’ Always learning!

210401 green cellar slug

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333/366 Striped snail

28 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by sconzani in molluscs

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Banded snail, British molluscs, British snails, Cernuella virgata, snails, Striped snail

And now for something completely different….

201128 striped snail (1)

I don’t often look at molluscs but these banded beauties caught my eye when I was walking across the Cardiff Bay Barrage earlier this week. I’m fairly sure they’re Cernuella virgata, Striped or Banded snails.

201128 striped snail (3)
201128 striped snail (4)

The presence of dark-on-light spiralling bands on their shells is one defining feature, as is their semi-spherical, rather than flat, shape, and the small open umbilicus. And they’re usually found on coastal sites, particularly in calcareous grassland, which fits the Barrage location.

201128 striped snail (2)

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304/366 Wild word: deliquesce

30 Friday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi, molluscs

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British fungi, Coprinus comatus, deliquesce, deliquescence, inkcap fungus, inkcaps, Shaggy inkcap, slug, slug eating fungus

Deliquesce: verb; (of organic matter) become liquid, typically during decomposition. Mid 18th century from Latin deliquescere ‘dissolve’, from de- ‘down’ + liquescere ‘become liquid’ (Oxford Dictionary).

201030 shaggy inkcap (1)

These Shaggy inkcaps (Coprinus comatus) may look sturdy and robust but, like all inkcaps and many other species of fungi, they only last a few days, sometimes as little as 24 hours, before turning into a rather disgusting-looking liquid mush, as shown by the specimen below. If you want to read more about the how and why of that process, about the inkcaps’ ‘habit of destroying themselves with their own enzymes’, check out The Dish on Deliquescence in Coprinus Species by Jonathan Landsman on the Cornell Mushroom blog.

201030 shaggy inkcap (4)
201030 shaggy inkcap (5)

Many humans may not know that inkcaps quickly deliquesce but slugs do. This slimy beastie was digging in to a Shaggy inkcap delicacy before the fungus had a chance to digest itself.

201030 shaggy inkcap (6)

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207/366 At home in the bindweed

25 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in flowers, molluscs, nature, wildflowers

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Bindweed flower, slugs, slugs in bindweed flowers

I had to chuckle during this morning’s brief stomp between bouts of heavy rain. The local slugs, which I thought would be at home in such conditions, sliding on the grass, slithering over leaves, were more literally ‘at home’, sheltering in the deep flower cups of bindweed.

200725 slugs in bindweed (1)200725 slugs in bindweed (2)200725 slugs in bindweed (3)

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191/366 Snail sex

09 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in molluscs, nature

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British snails, snail love dart, snail reproduction, snail sex, snails

I’ve noticed snails cwtched up together many times in the past but I’d never observed the nitty gritty of what they were actually doing until I saw this pair. Because they’d pulled slightly apart, it was possible to see their ‘apparatus’ in action.

200709 mating snails (1)

And what about the tiny white spike on the snail at left? Is that one of the love darts that snails stab their mates with? I don’t know enough about snails to be sure but, for more on this point, you can read about the sharp end of snail sex on the National Geographic website here.

200709 mating snails (2)

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16/366 Beneath

16 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, molluscs, nature, winter

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Hairy snail, slime mould, slugs, springtail, under a log

When wet weather forces a change of plan, sometimes the only thing for it is to head to the woods and turn over some logs, because there’s never nothing to see under a log!

200116 1 slug
200116 2 slug

Two slugs, possibly even the same species despite their obvious colour differences.

200116 3 eggs
200116 4 eggs

Eggs? Those on the left might well be slug or snail eggs but the ones on the right were much smaller and seemed caught up in a web or perhaps just strands of slime. I didn’t poke them – didn’t want to disturb them – so I’m not sure of their texture.

200116 5 slime

A slime mould, though not as much slime as I was hoping for. Possibly one of the Trichia species, perhaps Trichia persimilis.

200116 8 springtail

A springtail, probably one of the Entomobrya species but I really needed a photo of its upper side to be able to confirm its identification.

200116 7 hairy snails

Hairy snails (Trochulus hispidus), I believe, as the only other hairy snail has a more conical shell. It always seems odd to me for a snail to have hairs … but odd is good, interesting, never boring!

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346/365 Sea shells

12 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by sconzani in coastal fauna, molluscs, nature, seaside

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

at the seaside, seashell, shells, shells on beach

When the rain finally abated mid afternoon, I went to vote and then headed down to the seaside, to clear my head with some fresh air. The tide was out so I couldn’t resist having a brief fossick along the beach. It’s a stony shore and there are never many shells to be found but I did find a few nestled amongst the stones.

191212 sea shells (9)
191212 sea shells (3)
191212 sea shells (1)
191212 sea shells (6)
191212 sea shells (7)
191212 sea shells (5)
191212 sea shells (4)
191212 sea shells (8)

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298/365 More good weather for slugs

25 Friday Oct 2019

Posted by sconzani in autumn, molluscs, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

autumn weather, berries, fungi, slugs, wet weather

191025 slugs (1)

Wales is once again living up to its reputation for being a wet country, a fact about which I may not be particularly happy but the slugs are once again / still loving it.

191025 slugs (2)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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