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Rare Massing Of Daedalochila auriculata (Say, 1818) Ocala Liptooth - 2019 |
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During an
exploratory field survey on 10/02/2014 a population of
Daealochila auriculata was discovered in an industrial area on
the east side of Evergreen Avenue in the port area of downtown
Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida (see:
Daedalochila auriculata On
Evergreen Avenue). The site was subsequentsly visited on
a periodic basis over the ensuing years and it became obvious
that the Daedalochila auriculata population at the site was
much larger than any other known population of the species in
northeast Florida. At none of the other known north Florida
locations were live snails common. During one of the periodic visits to the site on 9/7/2019, a total of nine live snails were found in and under debris (dry leaves, a very small piece of 2 x 4 lumber, and broken pieces of concrete blocks) on the corner of Evergreen Avenue and the entrance road to the NUStar Energy port facility. Having perused this exact spot at various times since 2014 and never found a single live Daedalochila, my curiosity was aroused and it was decided to monitor the site closely. The nine live specimens were removed from the corner. Over the next seven weeks an additional thirteen visits were made to the corner, and during nine of those visits, more live Daedalochila were found to have repopulated the habitat and were removed when found. By the end of the study period a total of 47 live Daedalochila had been found and removed from the habitat (see summary below). Interestingly, a lesser number of freshly deceased Daedalochila were also present at the site during at least half of the visits and were likewise immediately removed. The deceased snails were indistinguishable from the live specimens and required several days of monitoring to determine whether they were freshly deceased or alive. It appeared that they had arrived at the study area and almost immediately expired. It was initially believed that this sudden assembly of snails in such a exposed Spartan area represented a mating aggregation facilitated by pheromones. Such mating aggregations involving Daedalochila auriculata have been observed in the past but involved just a small number of specimens. Due to the number of snails which moved into the study area and almost immediately perished a snail death assembly was also considered. It should be noted that the 47 confirmed live Daedalochila were taken into captivity and monitored. No further mortality was observed and there were no indications of either mating or egg laying. |
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Image of the corner where the Daedalochila were found. The bottom image is a close-up view of the Spartan habitat. |
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Live Daedalochila found on the corner between 9/7-19/2019 |
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