Emilio,
There are several good papers on ecology, life history, etc. of Achatinella
(d'Welch, Hadfield, Mountain, etc.).  Unfortunately, I don't have them here
at work. You may wish to contact Dr. Rob Cowie at the Bishop Museum.  His
email address is [log in to unmask]

I think they use little trampolines or catapults myself.

Kurt


At 11:52 AM 7/29/99 -0400, you wrote:
>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
>