Abstract
ABSTRACT We studied the reproductive biology of Megalobulimus paranaguensis (Pilsbry & Ihering, 1900), a large and long-lived land gastropod from the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil. The study was conducted at an urban park in the city of Santos, state of São Paulo. For 4 years, we counted the egg postures and annual eclosion rate of 32 captive snails and looked for associations between egg posture and the climatical variables of the period. The annual mean posture of 8.7 eggs per snail obtained in our results is a small number, but typical of Brazilian macromollusks. The annual eclosion rate was 31%. The beginning of the annual activity period of snails occurred in the middle of March, and lasted 33.97±3.02 weeks. The dormancy period started in the beginning of November, and lasted 18.39±3.11 weeks. There were two egg posture peaks, a minor peak between March and May, and a major peak between August and November, with greater values in September. Megalobulimus paranaguensis has a well-defined seasonal reproductive pattern influenced by environmental temperature and temperature range. Furthermore, in this snail, reproduction is negatively influenced by temperature increasing and temperature range.
Highlights
We studied the reproductive biology of Megalobulimus paranaguensis (Pilsbry & Ihering, 1900), a large and long-lived land gastropod from the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil
The genus has great diversity, with 83 described species, 63 of which occur in Brazil (Simone, 2006, 2012; Borda & Ramirez, 2013; Fontenelle et al, 2014)
During dormancy periods, individuals bury themselves in the soil or leaf litter (Bequaert, 1948)
Summary
We studied the reproductive biology of Megalobulimus paranaguensis (Pilsbry & Ihering, 1900), a large and long-lived land gastropod from the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil. Nós estudamos a biologia reprodutiva de Megalobulimus paranaguensis (Pilsbry & Ihering, 1900), um grande e longevo gastrópode terrestre da Floresta Atlântica na costa sudeste do Brasil, em um parque urbano na cidade de Santos, Estado de São Paulo, ao longo de quatro anos, pelo número de posturas e taxa de eclosão anual de 32 caracóis cativos. During dormancy periods, individuals bury themselves in the soil or leaf litter (Bequaert, 1948) They are iteroparous hermaphrodite snails with annual periodicity and great longevity, can live up to 35 years (Pinto-de-Oliveira et al, 1984; Horn et al, 2005; Fontenelle & Miranda, 2012), and generally occur in low densities and irregular distribution (Simone, 1999; Eston et al, 2006; Miranda et al, 2015). The Brazilian authorities only list one species of Megalobulimus in their list of threatened species, M. cardosoi (Morretes, 1952), which is endemic to the state of Alagoas, and is critically endangered (Santos et al, 2015)
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