Dear Conch-L'ers,

Here's a pair of questions for the specialists....


I often find dead shells of land snails with clear patterns of breakage
resulting from predation.  Is there any literature that describes some
of the differences between breakage caused by rodents, vs. birds vs.
reptiles (etc.)?  Do different species of rodent exhibit different
breakage patterns?

Secondly,  I recently collected a nice series of dead shells of a
California Helminthoglyptid landsnail that showed a pattern of abrasion
and breakage on the body whorl a small distance back from the outer lip.
The hole clearly began as abrasion from inside the shell.  Is this
caused by carniverous snails (there are Haplotremes present at the
locality)?

Thanks,

Phil Liff-Grieff