A SHORT NOTE ON SNAILS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 85

A SHORT NOTE ON SNAILS.

il.n-ir-i Anderson, the daughter of a lighthouse-keeper up Nelson way, sends me ' a nice little letter, and to it I have appended a remark or two. Perhaps a line or two on snails a,i*d slugs will come in just now as a result of Muriel's letter. The New Zealand sinails are nearly extinct, I think; and the introduced on© is not 1 foyad south of Oa-maru, or not to any extent, though I hear that it is spreading. The New Zealand shell is diistimgniehible by its greater length compared with its ,' breadth. A snail has a shell, a slug has not, buy, both have the long eje-stalks which, they can protract or retract, and whioh are" called horns. The mouth of ■these animals contains a curious organ,, a radula-, " a rasp-like organ or lingual ribbon.'' On this axe the 150 (more or less) rows of teeth, the teeth numbering as many as 15,000 ! The radula with the teeth on it is, however, of the nature of a rasp, the teeth being est one way Like the teeth of a rip caw. These destructive little animals lay 40 or 50 eggs nightly for perhaps a fortnight. These hatch cut in about a month, take three years to mature, and di» about tv.o jears after. Ih-e slimy track in made by a discha-rga from a gland in^ the foot, to make movement easy, especially over roagh groumd. Frogs help to keep down slugs and snails, and in a booklat I hay« by__ me I read that in some parta of England they are imported specially to koao down animal life destructive to flowers and vegetables.