Red Apex fulica, albopicta?

[Kevin]

In the thread in news and announcements I posted pics of some different snails, which could be several species.

Some of my "fulica" has very distinct red apexes, like the one below, has anyone else got fulica with red shell-tips like the one below hatched from a usual clutch of fulica eggs?

Is it possible that they're a different species, or subspecies of fulica? or cross-bred with a snail that has a red-apex, like albopicta? if so will they produce eggs being crossbred?



Also out of all the snails, im fairly certain I have at least four albopicta, maybe more, these ones-









Apart from the last one, which is very small, they all are developing red apex's, which is noticable in the pictures. Can anyone tell for certain what they are? the others I had at the time of these im fairly certain are fulica, except for the fulica with the red-shell tips.

[Paul]

Number 1 and 3 look like standard fulica to me, I don't think the red apex means much. Albopicta have a large body whorl in comparison to the rest and it doesn't help that your specimens are immature.

But as I said in my last post, the pictures above don't show the important features.

[Kevin]

admin said:

Number 1 and 3 look like standard fulica to me, I don't think the red apex means much. Albopicta have a large body whorl in comparison to the rest and it doesn't help that your specimens are immature.

But as I said in my last post, the pictures above don't show the important features.

The ones on achatinidae.com hasnt got a very large body whorl have they?

www.achatinidae.com/Allgemeines/Gattungen/Achatina/A__albopicta/a__albopicta.html

What are the most important factors to determine fulica from albopicta?

So the several red apex fulica I have are regular fulica?

[Paul]

pandatazz said:

The ones on achatinidae.com hasnt got a very large body whorl have they?

www.achatinidae.com/Allgemeines/Gattungen/Achatina/A__albopicta/a__albopicta.html

Well, the body whorl is at least half the length and they are immature snails with only 7 whorls. Adult albopicta have 8.5 - 10 whorls. Body whorl is supposedly sharply set off from the spire which the pics on that site don't seem to show.

pandatazz said:

What are the most important factors to determine fulica from albopicta?

I don't know coz it's never been written down like that. I posted the albopicta description in, all you can do is go through that and tick off assertions or matches. Then do the same with fulica which you can find anywhere. I never typed up Bequaert stuff for fulica (there is a hell of a lot), but you can find stuff on the website, particularly

www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/ep/emerging_pests/pdf_files/achatinafulica.pdf

pandatazz said:

So the several red apex fulica I have are regular fulica?

I don't know, you could well have a tank of crossbreeds. I'm just saying that IDing is hard enough as it is. Until yours are full size and you document what features they have, we'll never know. You just can't tell on fuzzy and difficult specimens by just looking at pictures.

[sezzy5889]

well i think they all look like albopicta ;D

[Kevin]

I don't know, you could well have a tank of crossbreeds. I'm just saying that IDing is hard enough as it is. Until yours are full size and you document what features they have, we'll never know. You just can't tell on fuzzy and difficult specimens by looking at pictures.

Thats ok, I'll wait till I think they're full size, I'll try to document different features then, like you mentioned it doesnt help them being immature.

If they all turn out as cross-breeds, will they lay eggs at all?

[Paul]

Just read a bit more, it seems aperture size could well be a deciding factor between albopicta and fulica. Albopicta have a fairly large aperture, fulica have a fairly short one. Obviously this doesn't help if they are crossbreeds because what possibilities there are in that case, are probably massive and I doubt have been documented much.

sezzy5889 said:

well i think they all look like albopicta ;D

I think your probably right, it's just that number one look the most like a fulica/albopicta crossbreed, and I had a fulica like number 3, it's apex only had a hint of red but the shell could be the one pictured. Again, very similar shell patterns for both species, probably due to the enormous variety fulica have.

[Paul]

pandatazz said:

If they all turn out as cross-breeds, will they lay eggs at all?

We think, but don't know for sure, that it is likely they will lay fertile eggs. Anatomically, the species are probably very similar. Both albopicta and fulica are listed as sub-genus Lissachatina, so albopicta may well be a Lissachatina proper as fulica now is.

[Kevin]

admin said:

pandatazz said:

If they all turn out as cross-breeds, will they lay eggs at all?

We think, but don't know for sure, that it is likely they will lay fertile eggs. Anatomically, the species are probably very similar. Both albopicta and fulica are listed as sub-genus Lissachatina, so albopicta may well be a Lissachatina proper as fulica now is.

Thats good to know that its likely.

[Kevin]

Just read a bit more, it seems aperture size could well be a deciding factor between albopicta and fulica. Albopicta have a fairly large aperture, fulica have a fairly short one. Obviously this doesn't help if they are crossbreeds because what possibilities there are in that case, are probably massive and I doubt have been documented much.

When they get bigger i'll compare they're aperture to fulica of the same size, had a quick check, most of the ones that could be albopicta have apertures about the same size at the moment.

[Deleted]

phebe sent me pictures i cudnt believe it would be so difficult to differentiate fulica, albopicta and smithii.

i just hope she can get me the most albopicta-like ones.
i think the ones with yellow shells and sparse, irregular stripes are albopicta

[Deleted]

ohhh i just found a picture of a baby albopicta

it.groups.yahoo.com/group/achatina_gasteropodi

go here, then join it, then go to photos, and go to 'emanuele' and then theres some baby albo pictures.

[Kevin]

Just found a batch of eggs in the tank with the snails mentioned in this thread, the only ones large enough to lay eggs out of them (I think?) are the fulica with red apex's, a couple of them are around 10cm, the others are smaller..Wonder if all the baby's will develop a red apex as well?

[sezzy5889]

I have two fulica with red apex's one of them is really red!