Abstract
Archachatina marginata is an economically useful gastropod, scientifically proven to be of huge benefit to human’s health and wellbeing. Food varieties of A. marginata hunted from the immediate environment of Ovia North East, South-South, Nigeria, were investigated to select the most appropriate, in terms of preferences and availability. The study was conducted for five months (May to August, 2020) during the rainy season. Ten snails were selected from the wild with weights ranging from 340.21g to 355.32g and heights of 11.8cm to 13.3cm at the point of collection. The snails were housed each, in an escape-proof trench pen, covered with wire gauze and nylon net. They were fed with fourteen different types of food materials (water leaves, paw-paw leaves, sweet potato, white -boiled rice, corn powder, ripe paw-paw fruit, cocoyam leaves, millet powder, water melon, cucumber, formulated poultry mash, pineapple, white paper and cabbage). Water melon was very well consumed by all the snails (1323.30g; 66.17%) compared to other food items. The least consumed food items were millet powder (19.99%) and pineapple (20.28%). There was a marked increase in weight and length of the snails as the months progressed, with average length of 15.01 cm and average weight of 501.58g in August, relative to the initial measurements in May.
Highlights
The knowledge of snail’s food diversity, preferences and their availability especially, for the Archachatina species are crucial for the wellbeing of the snails
The food materials given to the snails were consumed, though the quantity eaten differed according to the type of food
It is evident that all these food materials can serve as food for A. marginata snail (Figure 2)
Summary
The knowledge of snail’s food diversity, preferences and their availability especially, for the Archachatina species are crucial for the wellbeing of the snails. A. marginata is a zoologically important big-sized species of snails, referred to as the giant African Land snail. The shell can reach up to 130mm in diameter, with 6 or 7 rings and a body length of up to 20 cm. The color can be described as white or cream background with long black or dark brown zigzag lines. A. marginata belongs to the family Achatinidae and subfamily Achatininae (Galli, 2017). This species has some morphological differences from the other Archatininae snails especially, Achatina species, in skin texture (smoother), apex of the shell (more blunt) and the shape of the tail (raising V shape) (plate 1)
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