Can You Cross Breed Snails? Or Is It A Myth

[Johnnywho]

I want to know if snails can be cross bred...
It just came to me lol

[SnailsPace]

Which species are you thinking of? Generally I'd say no though for most

[Johnnywho]

Well I Don't Really Know I Just Wanted To Know If I Could Happen or Not

[crossless]

Jadatzi is example cross breed of a. fulica and a. fulica hamillei (rodatzi)

Atleast sub species might cross breed when people tell to keep every form clean and avoid hybrids because you can't always notice changes in baby snails features in first generation or longer..

[Robert Nordsieck]

I have heard that closely related species sometime also can crossbreed and that this can be the source of new species. This bastardization has been described in door snails, I think.

But for example helicid snails (such as Roman snails and banded snails) do occasionally mate crossing species, because they have the same attractant pheromone. But nothing will come from it.

And of course, mating is only possible, if the genital apparatus is compatible. And that is something always different between different species, even if the rest looks alike.

Also the chromosome numbers can be different (which I found out when reading about the Spanish slug), which would make cross-breeding impossible.

Kind regards
Robert

[coyote]

Jun 2, 2011 21:13:37 GMT Robert Nordsieck said:

But for example helicid snails (such as Roman snails and banded snails) do occasionally mate crossing species, because they have the same attractant pheromone. But nothing will come from it.

I have seen cross-species mating between T. pisana and O. lactea, but as Robert said, nothing came of it.

I have also witnessed courtship between O. lactea and H. aspersa, but I do not know if it led to actual mating. Eggs were laid but did not hatch (eggs could have been from a previous mating before I acquired the snail).

[Johnnywho]

Cool that's interesting

[Robert Nordsieck]

There is a paper by Falkner on the matter. I have pictures of Helix lucorum and pomatia (by Arno), as well as Cepaea nemoralis and Helix pomatia by another photographer.

According to Falkner (Falkner, G. (1993): Lockspiel und Lockstoffdrüsen bei Hygromiiden und Heliciden (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora): Heldia 2 (1/2) (1993), 15 – 20.), the relatives of Helix (aka. Helicidae) and some other snail groups produce an olfactory attractant, like a pheromone, which apparently is not quite specific and attracts anything that widely resembles a snail. There also is a Cornu aspersum snail I was able to photograph which was hit by no less than 3 love darts at once (looks like St. Sebastian), of which one definitely was no Cornu dart but from a Cepaea (there were no other snails).