You say the strombus was "swimming." What was the motion like? A flip and glide? Strombids are know to dig that perc in and flip on land. Was this an underwater version? Actual swimming would seem to require use of the mantle. > -----Original Message----- > From: Stephen Tettelbach [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 4:02 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: swimming gastropods > > 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