Euglandina rosea (Férussac, 1821) Eggs In Situ In The Field

    On 12/16/2018 this large empty 75.1 mm. Euglandina shell was found in a swampy area on the west side of US-1 about 3.1 miles northwest of International Golf Parkway in northern St. Johns County, Florida. It was immediately obvious that the shell contained a number of unhatched Euglandina eggs (top image below). Later while cleaning the shell a total of 27 eggs were extracted (most pictured in bottom image). One of the eggs was opened and found to be empty. There are two explanations for the eggs presence. Either another Euglandina specimen deposited the eggs in the empty shell or more likely the Euglandina  had eggs present at the time of its demise and the deceased animal decomposed while the calcareous eggs persisted.