Berry College
Most recent answer
Sorry I answered the first question in your title, but did not see the more specific question below it. I can't add anything on the specific question regarding Radix that has not already been answered by others above.
All Answers (7)
Center for Forests and Climate Change
Hello Alexander,
Sometime ago,I did some research with Dr Joris Koene at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam,the Netherlands on aquatic snails specifically Lymnaea stagnalis.
He's my best bet so far on aquatic snail physiology and anatomy,get in touch with him via http://www.joriskoene.com/
Additionally,i have attached a copy of the book The classification and ecology of North American freshwater Invertebrates second edition 2001. I hope it is helpful.
Goodluck.
University of Wuerzburg
Hi Alexander,
I suggest contacting Peter Gloeer - he is an expert in European freshwater molluscs and maybe can help you. He is also capable of taking magnificient photos, so maybe, he alredy has some of Radix-radulae and the measurements, you are looking for (http://malaco.de/).
Best,
Fabian
Natural History Museum, London
You might want to adjust your question a bit to focus on Lymnaea. There is a huge amount of diversity among freshwater snails, and similarly in radulae. In the species flocks of gastropods I work on in Lake Tanganyika (Lavigeria & Vinundu), for example, radular variation can be a key trait for both ecological and evolutionary studies. There is similar work on species flocks in Indonesian lakes (von Rintelen, et al), and Baikal (Sitnikova), etc. Though that said, unravelling the adaptive and non-adaptive differences can be a bit of a challenge. And ontogenetic changes can complicate the story as well.
Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University
If the hypothesis is suggestive of different sizes and shapes among congeners, I would say that it will probably proven to be wrong or get unsufficient support. Not only due to obscurity of inter/intra-specific variation, but also to affecting drivers like habitat constraints, food choices and several abiotic factors that are not likely to be so strikingly different as the degree of the morphoplasticity in Radix. I would consider shape rather than teeth height and with some caution radula size if I was to study biotic responses of syntopic Radix species.
Berry College
As with marine gastropods, there is a bit of variation in radular structure among freshwater gastropods. However, if you are looking for a generality, it would appear that since most freshwater gastropods are herbivores or algal scrapers, their radulas more typically would resemble those of similarly herbivorous marine species. The shell-drilling and flesh-tearing radulas seen often among marine predators bring in more diversity among marine groups, which of course are more diverse in other ways as well.
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Histopathological alterations induced by Thiodan in three tissues, namely, digestive gland, foot and mantle, of the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis were investigated. Specimens of Lymnaea stagnalis were exposed to 0.36% and 0.72% Thiodan 35 EC, a commercial grade of endosulfan, for 96 h followed by a recovery period of 30 days. Thiodan caused si...
Monolayers of blood cells (amoebocytes) and sections of connective tissue and of amoebocyte pellets of the freshwater pulmonate gastropod Lymnaea stagnalis were stained immunocytochemically with antisera to snail agglutinin/opsonin. The presence of this substance was demonstrated light microscopically both in the cytoplasm and on the cell membrane...