Snail ID: Fulica or Immaculata?

[scarral]

Could you please help me identify these little ones? More pictures follow.

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[scarral]

The first picture (previous message) was taken last year around June, this one was from October.

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[scarral]

This is from a couple of weeks ago.

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[scarral]

These are the parents, who are about 7 years old.

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[scarral]

This is also very recent, with my hand (small hand I must say) as a comparison.

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[Kevin]

They look like Achatina immaculata. What colour is their columella?

www.petsnails.co.uk/documents/species/id-your-snail.html#start

The columella is shown on the diagram in the link, immaculata should have a purplish or reddish columella.

[Evil Angel]

I agree Kevin. If they turned out to be Fulica I'd be very shocked, I'm sure they're Immacs

[scarral]

Well, that's the thing, I'm no expert, but I don't think this columela looks anything but brown (I'll post a second picture on my next message)... What do you think?

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[scarral]

This is the second picture of the columela.

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[Kevin]

There shouldn't be any need, because they are almost certainly immaculata, but you'd need to gently push the body around it back a bit to see the columella colour.

[morningcoffee]

As Kevin has said, the columella is slightly further in the shell and can only be seen when the snail is more retracted.

See this photo of a margie where the snail is retracted and you can clearly see the apricot-orange columella.





However, Kevin is correct again in that you probably don't need to bother poking the snail around to get proper columella photos as I think it's fairly certain they are immaculata

Just to add, some people have found that immacs seem to like/require meat more than some other species, so you may wish to try giving them something like raw bacon, raw mince, or some soaked cat or dog biscuits

[scarral]

OMG that's a lot of retraction! I don't think they were that retracted even when they were hibernating! I don't think I'm willing to torture them like that for the sake of a purely academic question... So I'll guess I'll keep it at that and find out more about what immaculatas (as opposed to fulicas) actually need. For one I know that I'll be spraying a bit more often!

Thanks for your help!

[morningcoffee]

Mar 27, 2013 22:27:10 GMT scarral said:

OMG that's a lot of retraction! I don't think they were that retracted even when they were hibernating! I don't think I'm willing to torture them like that for the sake of a purely academic question... So I'll guess I'll keep it at that and find out more about what immaculatas (as opposed to fulicas) actually need. For one I know that I'll be spraying a bit more often!

Thanks for your help!

It was a margie that I rescued from Brixton Market - it was retracted, dry, cold and generally unhappy due to the circumstances it had been imported/kept in at the market rather than anything I'd done! That photo was taken after I brought it home, just before I gave the snail a warm bath and a thorough clean (you can see how dirty the shell is) so that I could put it into its new home with some food The snail in question went on to live a very happy and spoiled life

This was just the best photo I had to hand to demonstrate where the columella is and how to see it. A snail doesn't have to retract THIS much to see it, it was just an easy way to show it as obviously this snail was extremely retracted at the time. It doesn't necessarily have to be "torture" to get a snail to move enough to see the columella though. Some gentle touching or light prodding is often enough to persuade them to move their bodies sufficiently. As you say though, it's almost certainly not worth it in this case as I think we are fairly sure it's an immac