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The study of substratum preference in pestiferous land snail, macrochlamys petrosa (hutton)

Author Affiliations

  • 1Dept. of Zoology, Government Arts and Science College, Aurangabad, MS, India

Res. J. Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sci., Volume 5, Issue (1), Pages 1-2, January,24 (2017)

Abstract

The distribution and population of land snail Macrochlamys petrosa depends up on type of soil, temperature, rainfall, humidity and natural enemies. The observations on the ecology were made in the natural as well as under laboratory conditions by performing the experiments. To test experimentally the behavior of the snail towards substratum preference, round glass troughs were used as the experimental containers. Moist soil, sand and stones were collected from the natural habitat of the snail and this material was divided into four parts i.e.) moist soil ii) moist soil and sand iii) sand with stones and iv) only sand. In the centre of troughs 50 snails were placed and left for 24Hrs. After 24hrs location of the snails was noted down. Average percentage distribution and substratum preference of the snail was calculated for each type of substratum. It is observed that moist soil was preferred by 80% of snails, 10% snails preferred moist soil and sand substratum, 8% snails preferred sand with stones and only 2% snails found in only sand substratum. No mortality of snail was observed during this experiment.

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