It is a cool day today–42 degrees F. To those of you on the more logical scale, that is 6 degrees C. Winter is taking its own sweet time leaving us.
I wanted to take some pictures of some critters so I turned over some logs to see what I could find.
A small slug was wedged into the bark. It could be a Deroceras species.
I found about half a dozen snails of various sizes. I think they were all immature individuals of Euchemotrema fraternum. I placed them all on a leaf and waited for some action.
Only one individual seemed interested in his surroundings. He poked his head out and checked the environment.
(Land snails of this group are hermaphroditic. They have both male and female reproductive organs. I would rather use “he” or “she” than “it”. All of those would probably be correct anyway).
Once he had his bearings, he stretched out and grabbed onto the leaf.
With a little effort he could right himself.
Then he made a mad dash to the edge of the leaf.
He inspected it a little before plunging over.
Then he went over and hung on the underside of the leaf.
This seems to be a fairly natural position for snails to stay in. If you turn over a log, the snail will be on the underside of the log. There is often a gap between the log and the ground, so the snail is, in fact, often hanging upside down there.
