Helix (gastropod)

Helix is a genus of large air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. This genus is native to Europe and the regions around the Mediterranean Sea. Helix is the type genusof the family Helicidae. The best-known species include Helix aspersa, the common, or brown garden snail, and Helix pomatia, the Roman snail, Burgundy snail, or edible snail. H. pomatia and some other species are eaten as escargots. Helix snails have been introduced throughout the world, where some, especially H. aspersa, have become garden pests. The genus Helix is known from the Oligocene on.

External features

An unidentified Helix species from southern Europe

In addition to the hard calcareous shell that covers and protects the internal organs, the head and foot region can be observed when the snails are fully extended. When they are active, the organs such as the lung, heart, kidney and intestines remain inside the shell; only the head and foot emerge. The head of the snail has two pairs of tentacles: the upper and larger pair contain the eyes, and the lower pair are used to feel the ground in front. The mouth is located just underneath the head. The tentacles can be withdrawn or extended depending on the situation. The mouth has a tonguecalled a "radula" that is composed of many fine chitinous teeth. This serves for rasping and cutting food.

Respiration

Burgundy Snail (Helix pomatia)

Since snails in the genus Helix are terrestrial rather than fresh-water or marine, they have developed a simple lung for respiration. (Most other snails and gastropods have gills,instead.) Oxygen is carried by the blood pigment hemocyanin. Both oxygen and carbon dioxide diffuse in and out of blood through the capillaries. A muscular valve regulates the process of opening and closing the entrance of the lung. When the valve opens, the air can either leave or come into the lung. The valve plays an important role in reducing water loss and preventing drowning.

Edible snails
H. pomatia and H. aspersa are the two edible species that are most used in European cuisine. Spanish cuisine also uses Otala punctata,Theba pisana and Iberus gualterianus alonensis, amongst others. The process of snail farming is called heliciculture. Escargots are often served in a traditional way as appetizers. They may also be used as ingredients in other recipes. Snails contain many nutrients. They are rich in calcium and also contain vitamin B1 and E. They contain various essential amino acids, and are low in calories and fat.

Mating and Reproduction

In spring, when the Roman snails have been awake from hibernation for some time, it becomes time for mating. Depending on the weather and other environmental conditions, mating time may last until the end of June. Only until then the juveniles will have enough time to prepare for hibernation so they are able to survive winter. Roman snails, and with them most terrestrial snail species, are hermaphrodites. They have male, as well as female organs in one collective genital apparatus. This organ system not only contains sexual organs in the narrow sense of the word, but also various auxiliary organs, that have respective tasks in different periods during mating.

In spring, when the Roman snails are awake from hibernation, the mating season begins. [RN]

What advantage does being a hermaphrodite give to a Roman snail? Because of its proverbial slowness the snail needs much time to move in a very small area. So the chances to meet a mating partner are too low to divide them even further by two sexes to choose from. Terrestrial pulmonate snails (Stylommatophora), such as the Roman snail, on the other hand, have double mating chances, because in principle, they can mate with any snail of the right species they encounter. Besides, during copulation, Roman snails do not act as either male or female, but simultaneously as both.

The Process of Mating

A Roman snail's mating process takes place in several phases, which go from an attraction phase over an extensive courtship until finally the copulation itself. Picture series: Roman Snails Mating.

Attraction and Courtship

A Roman snail (Helix pomatia) ready to mate. Clearly visible: The swollen region of the head, where the attractant gland

Attraction sometimes passes the borders of species. Helix lucorum (left) and pomatia (right). Picture: Arno Brosi.

The encounter of two Roman snails ready for mating is not purely incidental. Like many other terrestrial snails, they as well have a gland located at the head, producing an olfactory sexual attractant. Those attractants are also used by other snail species among the helicid snails, such as banded snails (Cepaea).
is active. Picture: Mica Brugsch.

As a consequence incidentally two snails of entirely different species may feel attracted and try mating. Between snails of different species, that attempt must, of course, remain unsuccessful. : FALKNER, G. (1993) Inter-species mating between a Roman snail (Helix pomatia) and a grove snail (Cepaea nemoralis). Pictures: Christian Gagelmann. Mating between Roman snails and their relatives, though, are certainly possible, but will not yield any fertile offspring. Bastardization between closely related snail species may, however, lead to the development of new species, as it occurs among the family of door snails ( Clausiliidae). The courtship among Roman snails is a very interesting thing to witness: Both snails begin by raising their heads and putting their flat foot soles against each other. They touch each other with tentacles and lips while they are swaying gently. As a prelude to the actual copulation this courtship process may last as long as twenty hours. The copulation itself will take a much smaller fraction of time. Application of a Love Dart During the courtship possibly a dart may be applied, one snail stinging it into the mate's foot. This dart has been called love dart, as its application obviously is in direct connection with courtship or mating. The pricked snail becomes visibly more excited and active, sometimes it also returns the favour by jabbing a love dart into the mate's body. A Roman snail's love dart can become as long as 7 to 11 mm and consists of a four-edge blade on one and a crown on the other end. In idle state with this crown the dart sits on a papilla in the dart sac. To use the dart, the snail pushes out the interior of the dart sac, thrusting the dart into the mate's body. After separation from the papilla, the dart remains stung in the body.

A Roman snail's love dart may have a length of about 7 to 11 mm and is formed in the dart sac in the snail's genital system. During courtship it is stung into the mate's body. Picture: Mica Brugsch.

Though it is called a dart, in many languages also an arrow, the Roman snail's love dart is neither thrown nor shot, there is no distance of free flight! Instead it is thrust into the mate's body, more like a dagger, than a dart (see picture on the right!). Sometimes, though, the love dart also misses its target. Than it may come to rest on the mate's body without penetrating it, but it can also happen that one of the two mates is hurt. It is not in every mating process, that a love dart is applied. To be precise, that is not even possible! Roman snails mate, whenever possible, but the replication of a love dart needs sometimes more time, than remains between two mating encounters. Research has found out, that the application of a love dart does not at all only influence a snail's behaviour. By means of the love dart a secretion is injected, that is produced by the finger shaped glands in the genital apparatus. This Close up of the love dart. secretion contains hormones, that influence certain parts of the Picture: Mica Brugsch. genital apparatus and that way improve the reproductive chances of the snail that applied the dart. : KOENE, J.; CHASE, R. (1998). The exact effects of the hormone secretion transferred by the love dart are described together with the respective organs of thegenital apparatus. Copulation After the long and extensive courtship there may be several attempts on copulation. It may so happen that the readiness to mate between two snails is very different, so that the copulation attempts may look more like a wrestling match. When finally both snails managed to find a suitable position, they actually perform copulation. Both penises are entwined and inserted into the mate's vagina. The union successfully completed, both snails stay as they are.

It so happens that snails are of a very different enthusiasm during courtship [RN]

Now, a sperm packet, a so-called spermatophore, is produced in either snail's body and afterwards filled with sperm cells. This spermatophore is almost 10 cm long and is roughly shaped like a thread. Even after it was positioned in the mate's genital apparatus, the tail still looks out of the snail's genital opening. This is why the two snails remain motionless for a certain time after completing of the copulation: The spermatophore's application in the mate's genital apparatus must be supported; an early interruption of the union may disrupt the spermatophore and thus render useless the hours of toil included in a standard snail courtship. It is only now that both snails separate. Only little time later they may meet again with other potential mates. A part of the sperm cells just received, however, will be stored in a special sperm pouch. Those sperm cells may then well manage to fertilise egg cells, though they will have to compete with sperm cells of other mating partners also stored in the same pouch. Fertilisation, though, only happens, when it is time to lay eggs. That finally will happen, provided the environmental conditions are favourable and there is a place where the eggs can be deposited in a special hole in the ground.

Here a part of the spermatophore remains to be seen: The tail at the bottom and the rear end of the sperm container. Picture: Mica Brugsch.

Egg Deposition

A view into a Roman snail's hatchery hole. Picture: Monika Samland.

To find a suitable place to deposit their eggs, about 4 to 6 weeks after mating, Romans snails sometimes migrate for noticeable distances. To make a hiding place for its eggs, the snail needs at least 3 to 5 cm of loose ground to dig a hole in. The hole, in which the eggs are to be placed, resembles that a Roman snail usually hibernates in. So this hole as well the

It may happen but weeks after mating, that a Roman snail deposits its eggs, provided the conditions are favourable. Picture: Monika Samland.

Roman snail digs with its foot, helping with drilling motions of the shell. Not all holes begun will be used as a hatchery in the end; often a snail will leave one digging place to start somewhere else again. Only when it is finished digging a suitable hole for its eggs, the Roman snail will take a break of several hours, during which it will stay at the hole and begin to fertilise the egg cells and to produce eggs in the spermoviduct. Laying eggs is a mechanical process the snail cannot stop, once it has begun. Should it be disturbed, the snail will probably leave the site and in the meantime continue laying its eggs on the ground, where they will most probably be lost. The Roman snail deposits an egg of about 6 mm diameter (0.1 to 0.2 g weight) each 15 to 30 minutes. As the amount of eggs laid by a Roman snail may vary with age and locality, counting 40 to 60 eggs, the process of egg deposition may last between 20 and 30 hours! When it has finished, the snail withdraws its body from the egg hole and glides over the opening to close it with earth crumbs. In the egg hole now closed the development of the young takes place without any further interference of the adult snail.

Picture: [RN].

Snails do not watch over their young. The only molluscs that do, are octopuses, which are among the most highly developed molluscs.

Development
Snails, like other molluscs, generally develop past a larval stage. The fertilised egg cell by continuous cell cleavages an embryo form, that gradually develops into a larva. It is not only sea snails, but also terrestrial snails that develop past such a larval stage. A Roman snail larva also does not resemble the adult; it even has got larval organs not present in an adult snail. Other than sea snail larvae that are distributed by floating like plankton with the water currents, a Roman snail's larva never leaves its egg. All of the snail's embryonic and larval development takes place inside the egg.
This freshly hatched Roman snail is only one day old. It still has a soft shell, which must be hardened with lime. [RN]

The development is concluded by a metamorphosis, during which the larva changes its shape and develops into a juvenile snail. During the metamorphosis the larval organs are reduced and the juvenile snail's final organs form; they enable the snail to live on dry land their function is indispensable for the snail able to hatch. One organ system that comes into existence is the respiratory system that is not yet present in the organism of the larva.

The young snail hatching after 25 days from a Roman snail's egg externally almost looks like an adult snail. The is the complete albeit small body with head and foot, four tentacles, as well as a translucent shell, though whose transparent walls the heart can be seen beating. Only the genital organs are not yet developed. The snail's hermaphroditic gland will have to mature, so it is able to produce egg and sperm cells by the third life year of the young snail. The development from the fertilised egg cell to the juvenile snail hatching takes about 25 to 26 days among Roman snails. It is, though, very susceptible to external factors, such as temperature and humidity. The first 8 to 10 days after hatching the juvenile snails stay in the earth hole that serves as their hatchery. In this time they eat the remains of their eggs and the albumen within. They so take in the first nutrients and the first lime to strengthen their soft shell. Especially when the development in one batch of eggs takes a different amount of time, the juveniles hatched first not only eat the remains of their own eggs, but also of their siblings' eggs and sometimes even their dead siblings. It may even happen they eat their younger and weaker siblings, which means cannibalism in the hatchery. But this sometimes occurring cannibalism also means a way of selection: Research has revealed, that juvenile The number of whorls in their shells shows that these juvenile snails that had fed on their weaker siblings, were snails are a already some weeks old. [RN] considerably bigger when leaving the hatchery and thus had a definitely better position to start from. : KOTHBAUER, H. (1972) From their earth hole the juvenile snails have to free themselves on their own. They eat and dig through the earth cover until they reach the surface. On the spot the young snails try to climb plant stems as soon as possible to evade being hunted on the ground. For ants and other predatory insect the young defenceless snails are easy prey.

Juvenile Roman snails at the age of few weeks (first three pictures) and at the age of five months. At this age, the young snail already clearly resembles an adult snail and will be able to survive its first winter. [RN]

The young snails start looking for food and to grow. In the months until their first winter, depending on food supply, the may reach 10 mm in size and grow three more whorls on their shell. Maturity they generally will only reach after their second winter. Until then their shell will have grown to 5 whorls and 40 mm in diameter. Because of the large amount of lime inserted into its walls, it will almost be indestructible. It will be a long way to go. In nature, only about 5% of young snails manage to survive until maturity. Commercial

BREEDING SNAILS REPRODUCTION

Breeding Snails are selected and hold an official certificate proving the origin, variety and hygiene, all of which are essential elements to international trade. Snails are purchased by our company only once during the first year of cultivation. In the mid second year the performance of our farm will peak and snail production will become sustainable.

REPRODUCTION Snails begin to mate in late spring. All snails give birth since there are neither male nor female: Snails are hermaphrodites. The Helix-Aspersa species does not have a particular month of reproduction. Reproduction mainly depends on climatic conditions. During the birth period, snails dig a few millimeters of soil in order to place their eggs safely. After a period of 20 days, newborn snails come out on the ground. Each snail gives birth every 15 minutes and completes the delivery in a time period of 25-30 hours. Each snail gives 40 - 120 eggs within a diameter of approximately 3 mm. Newborn snails carry a transparent shell and soon its size will increase if it feeds well.