Hello!

Hi to all,

I have a question which goes back to a previous Conch-L discussion of
the Hawaiian Achatinella sp.

It was stated, I think by Rich Goldberg, that the Achatinellas
are endemic to the "Ohia Lehua" tree (Metrosideros polymorpha) and
if the snails are moved to another Ohia tree or other species of tree
the snails die.

This raises the question; how do the Achatinellas disperse?
Obviously, to the most casual "thinker", all of the Achatinellas
do not live on one discrete tree as they form colonies in areas
having several/many Ohia trees.
There must be a dispersal mechanism. What is the mechanism?

The same "story" has been published several times for the Liguus tree
snails. "If the snails are moved to another tree they will die."
(Platt, 1949, National Geographic Issue ??, for one). This is obviously
not true as dozens of thriving Liguus colonies in the Everglades
National Park were started by moving snails from distant threatened
endemic localities. These were moved from/to totally different
microclimates and host tree species.

In conclusion; does anyone know how the Achatinella disperse from tree
to tree? If so, what is the dispersal mechanism?

Later,


Emilio Jorge Power