Nature Study: snail body colour

snails.jpg

We were walking through the woods when we found this little group of snails having a party in the middle of the path.  It looked like they were eating lichen. And the strange things is that two of them are beige and two are dark grey, even though they seem to be the same kind.  Why is that, I wonder.  Here is one thing I discovered by doing a search on the Internet:

There is geographical variation in body colour in the land snails Cepaea nemoralis and C. hortensis along a transect of 88 samples from the north of Scotland to the Pyrenees. Paler body colour is associated with higher mean daily maximum temperature in both species. Laboratory experiments show that dark-bodied snails heat up more rapidly and reach a higher equilibrium temperature than do pale snails when exposed to radiant energy. Climatic selection favouring pale body colour in warm areas and dark body colour in cold areas is probably responsible for the association with climate.

********************************************

Antonia was busy with a play date all day.  I spent the morning reading a book by myself (!), and the afternoon on my translation project, which is nearing completion.

Leave a Reply