Revista de Biología Tropical ISSN Impreso: 0034-7744 ISSN electrónico: 2215-2075

OAI: https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/oai
The mysterious crystalline tentacles of snails

How to Cite

Monge-Nájera, J. (2020). The mysterious crystalline tentacles of snails. Revista De Biología Tropical, (7). Retrieved from https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/51637

Abstract

200 years ago, an Estonian zoologist described a strange worm that lived on the skin of freshwater snails. No one knew what it was doing there, and after 200 years, the answer is that it may be a protector of the snail, that it may be a parasite, or maybe both. It is important to me because I got to know these worms in person when I did my first scientific study almost four decades ago. They looked like dozens of liquid crystal tentacles protruding from the snail.

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References

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² Gruffydd, Ll. D. (1965). The Population Biology of Chaetogaster limnaei limnaei and Chaetogaster limnaei vaghini (Oligochaeta) Journal of Animal Ecology, 34(3), 667-690

³ Stoll, S., Früh, D., Westerwald, B., Hormel, N., & Haase, P. (1991). Density-dependent relationship between Chaetogaster limnaei limnaei (Oligochaeta) and the freshwater snail Physa acuta (Pulmonata). The American Midland Naturalist, 125(2), 192-205.

⁴ Fernandez, J., Goater, T. M., & Esch, G. W. (1991). Population dynamics of Chaetogaster limnaei limnaei (Oligochaeta) as affected by a trematode parasite in Helisoma anceps (Gastropoda). The American Midland Naturalist, 125(2), 195-205.

⁵ Rodgers, J. K., Sandland, G. J., Joyce, S. R., & Minchella, D. J. (2005). Multi-species interactions among a commensal (Chaetogaster limnaei limnaei), a parasite (Schistosoma mansoni), and an aquatic snail host (Biomphalaria glabrata). Journal of Parasitology, 91(3), 709-712.

⁶ McCaffrey, K. (2014). Patterns of multi-symbiont community interactions in California freshwater snails (Ph. D. Thesis). University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.

⁷ Smythe, A. B., Forgrave, K., Patti, A., Hochberg, R., & Litvaitis, M. K. (2015). Untangling the ecology, taxonomy, and evolution of Chaetogaster limnaei (Oligochaeta: Naididae) species complex. Journal of Parasitology, 101(3), 320-326.

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