Greetings - I am trying to track down information on swimming behavior of 2
marine gastropods. I have done a brief electronic literature search and have
spoken to a couple of colleagues, but have not been able to find much
information to this point. If anyone out there can help I would be most
grateful.
During two different night dives in Fiji, 3 yrs ago, I observed gastropod
swimming that greatly surprised me. The first was a pair of Strombus
dentatus that swam about 1-1.5 feet off the substrate, with a hang time of
about 1-1.5 seconds. I understand that Strombus terebellatus is a good
swimmer, although I have not yet tracked down a reference on that.
Does anyone know if this has been reported for dentatus?

The second snail behavior was very bizarre. I observed a small (~1 cm
diameter), flattened white snail that shot away from me and landed about 5-
6 feet away after i approached it. I caught up with it, then took one macro
picture of it, but before I was able to pick it up, it shot off again (kind of
reminiscent of the flight of a UFO actually) and landed even further away
than the first flight. After extensive searching I was not able to find it again.
I never saw this behavior again. The one picture that I got is somewhat
overexposed and I can not identify the snail. It looks somewhat like a
Modulus.

I will be returning to this site in January 2002 and will attempt to follow up
on these observations.
If anyone has any thoughts/references, etc. that they might share I would
greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely, Steve Tettelbach




Stephen T. Tettelbach, Ph.D.
Natural Science Division
Southampton College
Southampton, NY 11968
Email: <[log in to unmask]>
Phone: 516-287-8418
Fax: 516-287-8419