Can Estivation Preferences Be Used to Develop Novel Management Tools against Invasive Mediterranean Snails?

ABSTRACT: Terrestrial snails that live in hot and dry climates have developed strategies to cope with high summer temperatures. Several species estivate during the warmest months of the years by resting on vertical supports, typically in groups. Understanding how snails choose their estivation sites and aggregate may lead to the development of new management tools in areas where these snails are invasive. Here, we investigated the preferences of four snail species for vertical supports varying in widths and heights under laboratory and field conditions, and tested whether the presence of conspecifics or snails of other species affected these preferences. The results show that the snails strongly preferred wider supports in laboratory dual-choice tests, and one species (Theba pisana) showed a co

SUBMITTER: Hanache P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8708318 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature