A clutch of snail eggs: 2: Hatchlings feeding

1. Hatchlings LINK.

The earlier post showed that these small snails were nocturnal, hiding in the soil during the day and emerging at night to feed LINK.

In trying to document them feeding, the snails had to be subjected to lighting. This, inturn forced them to move under the leaf to avoid the light (above, below). As a result, only a few snails were documented feeding on the leaf of the Chinese Kale (Brassica alboglabra).

The video below shows the week-old snails grazing on the leaf, using their radula or rasping tongue to scrape or cut their food before channeling the bits and pieces through its digestive system LINK.

This tongue is also used to clean its shell of dried mucous.

During its feeding, small fragments of its food pass through its digestive system and are excreted. This was seen in the morning. The inner surface of the cover of the plastic box was always littered with bits of dark wastes left by the snails moving about inside the box during the night (below).

YC Wee
Singapore
11th January 2019