Dear James,
Your question is a good one.  If the exotic specimen was a prosobranch,
obviously it would need a mate to reproduce.  But what if said prosobranch
was a FEMALE that had ALREADY mated BEFORE it was shipped?  The sender
would not be able to tell that the specimen was pregnant....no major
swelling as in most vertebrate species.  Could the sender insure virginity?
 I don't think so.  We can't insure that in our own species, much less in
snails......

And what if the exotic specimen was a pulmonate?  Some are capable of
self-fertilization and MANY are capable of storing sperm for months,
perhaps years.  So the answer to your question is yes, it could possibly
cause much damage.....

But the real issue here is that the regulations are put in place and
everyone should abide by them.  Kind of like traffic laws.  If someone
wants to import living snails, they simply must jump through the
appropriate hoops and obtain the appropriate permits.

Kurt

At 01:45 PM 2/16/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Kurt,
>I am not trying to give the impression that I consider my getting these
>snails more important than the future of native species. I have a
>question,
>and it is simply out of curiosity. If only a single specimen of a foreign
>species
>was obtained for study, could it do any damage if it escaped? It seems to
>me
>that without a mate, it would not be able to reproduce, and therefor
>would not
>wreak havoc. I am now going to study just local snails, and, if the
>theory above
>is correct, I might have one Euglandina rosea.
>
>Best Regards,
>James
>
>James M. Cheshire
>(a.k.a. Jeremiah Chess)
>3185 Raccoon Valley Rd.
>Granville, OH 43023-9472
>USA
>