Studies on Some Gastropods

This investigation was conducted to study the habitats, behavior, locomotion rate, feeding habits, biological aspects and histological description of the two land slugs, marsh slug Deroceras laeve, and tawny garden slug Limax flavus, in addition to the land conical snail Cochlicella acuta. The three land gastropods are mainly herbivorous, and feed on wide range of host plants of field crops, ornamental plants,vegetables as well as horticultural plants. This study showed that self-fertilization occurs only in the two slug species Deroceras laeve and Limax flavus, while out-crossing is the normal breeding system in the land snail Cochlicella acuta, thus copulation is essentially for oviposition. The main biological aspects had been studied in this work such as incubation period, hatchability, life cycle, generation period, oviposition, post-oviposition, life span as well as growth parameters for the two land slugs Deroceras laeve and Limax flavus. Also, the same aspects had been studied for Cochlicella acuta beside mating, pre-oviposition period, development, sexual maturity, and growth performance for the snail's shell. Formula of radula for each gastropod species had been studied.