Post by Paul on Jul 1, 2005 5:40:14 GMT
I spoke to Gray (cybersnail) on the phone yesterday. Two of my four adult dimidiata were from her.
One of the parents of these snails is sinistral, the other dextral, and Gray witnessed them managing to mate by twisting round.
For a kick off, she has a sinistral African snail which is rare if I'm not mistaken. They call them King snails I think and I once read on a German (I think) website about someone who had 1000s of Helix pomatia who once had a King snail and searched the country looking for a mate. It even made national news!
The babies were all dextral to my knowledge. Mine certainly are. They recently laid eggs again. although none hatched.
Do you think the mating could have been successful or do you think they could have mated before?
And if they managed to, is it normal for the babies to be dextral. The way I understood it, being sinistral isn't a recessive trait, it is just that somewhere down the line, snails became one way, presumably in a feedback loop as they call it. Once one way dominates I suppose the other just gets bred out. Any mutations that cause a sinistral snail can't mate. Or is being dextral a dominant gene so they only realistic way of getting sinistral babies is to breed two King snails together?
Still, if it was possible for a sinistral/dextral pairing, it surely must up the chances of sinistral babies somewhere down the line.
She's currently not got a working computer so she's been offline, which is a shame coz I'd love to ask her more about it.
One of the parents of these snails is sinistral, the other dextral, and Gray witnessed them managing to mate by twisting round.
For a kick off, she has a sinistral African snail which is rare if I'm not mistaken. They call them King snails I think and I once read on a German (I think) website about someone who had 1000s of Helix pomatia who once had a King snail and searched the country looking for a mate. It even made national news!
The babies were all dextral to my knowledge. Mine certainly are. They recently laid eggs again. although none hatched.
Do you think the mating could have been successful or do you think they could have mated before?
And if they managed to, is it normal for the babies to be dextral. The way I understood it, being sinistral isn't a recessive trait, it is just that somewhere down the line, snails became one way, presumably in a feedback loop as they call it. Once one way dominates I suppose the other just gets bred out. Any mutations that cause a sinistral snail can't mate. Or is being dextral a dominant gene so they only realistic way of getting sinistral babies is to breed two King snails together?
Still, if it was possible for a sinistral/dextral pairing, it surely must up the chances of sinistral babies somewhere down the line.
She's currently not got a working computer so she's been offline, which is a shame coz I'd love to ask her more about it.