Proximate factors influencing egg cannibalism in the land snail Arianta arbustorum (Pulmonata, Helicidae).

Abstract

Factors affecting oophagy among siblings in the land snail Arianta arbustorum were studied in 3 populations from different altitudes in Switzerland. The degree of egg cannibalism in A. arbustorum is a function of hatching asynchrony since the earliest hatched snails will devour the unhatched eggs in the same clutch. Clutch size, egg density and amount of vegetable food available to newly hatched snails did not affect the degree of cannibalism. Snails from 3 populations were similar in terms of incubation time and intrinsic hatching asynchrony of the clutches. However, they differed in degree of cannibalism when the hatching asynchrony had been experimentally increased. Snails from a lowland forest showed a higher degree of cannibalism than did those from an alpine mountain slope. The parent snails differed in terms of incubation time and hatching synchrony in their clutches. Under natural conditions, the length of the hatching spread and, as a result, the degree of cannibalism will depend additionally on the mode of oviposition (batches or single; clumped or dispersed), on the spatial heterogeneity of egg-laying places and on climatic conditions (e.g. drought).