Abstract
1. 1. Experimental starvation in the fresh water pulmonate Helisoma trivolvis (and in Planorbarius corneus) can result in a 20–50% decrease in dry mass of tissues within shells of unchanged mass. 2. 2. Analyses of total organic carbon and nitrogen reveal that, after 132 days of starvation in Helisoma. C:N ratios are reduced from 5.78:1 to 4.44:1, losses of non-proteinaceous components being proportionately greater than the losses of protein. 3. 3. In a metabolic framework close to that of natural overwintering with a representative cohort of Helisoma, a 50% loss of tissue biomass (involving perhaps 20%, loss of protein) can occur with only 10% mortality over 132 days. 4. 4. Natural capacity for degrowth in snails is seen as contributing to the general plasticity characteristic of molluscan patterns of growth and life-cycles, and possibly as related to the similar capacity in turbellarian flatworms.
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