#JoyOfMolluscs
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trosborne.bsky.social
Happy #MolluscMonday!
Snail shells in traditional Pacific arts:
🐚In the Marianas, Chamorro & Refaluwasch people used akaleha' tree snails to make beaded bags & jewelry
🌏Many Pacific cultures use seashells for islands in stick chart maps, combining art, science, & geography
#JoyOfMolluscs
Akaleha' shell purse. Stick chart of the Marshall Islands.
September 21, 2025 at 10:11 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
⚧️Every akaleha is both male & female
😘To mate, one snail crawls on the other & they entwine their reproductive parts
👶Once mated, an akaleha will give birth to 1 baby every few weeks
#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs
3/4
Two mating Partula lutaensis. A juvenile Partula lutaensis.
April 26, 2025 at 2:58 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Juvenile akaleha’ are a bit harder to find 🔍
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 4/5
Juvenile snail crawling on the top of the leaf in the “1 o’clock” position of sapling.
August 31, 2025 at 12:30 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Gastropod terrestrialization thread 🤩 #SnailSunday #JoyOfMolluscs
snailseyeview.bsky.social Bronwen Scott @snailseyeview.bsky.social · May 11
Here are two land snails, both alike in dignity. No, wait. That’s the Montagues and Capulets.

These snails live on land (which is the very low bar for defining a land snail) but there are distinct differences between them. (1/12) #snails

Pics: © Dee McMahon CC BY-NC © Reiner Richter CC BY-NC-SA
Snail with a white, round shell with a tall spire, and translucent body crawling over a leaf that has been pre-nibbled, probably by something else. The shell has rounded whorls. A thin, flat, round operculum is tucked between animal and shell. The snail has two long, tapering tentacles and relatively big black eyes at the base. The head tapers into a snout. It's shaped a bit like a clothes iron if an iron was a snail, which is a Disney cartoon yet to be created. Leptopoma perlucidium (Cyclophoridae): Queensland, Australia. © Dee McMahon CC BY-NC https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/174050229 Massive unit of a snail crawling over a fallen tree trunk. The shell is big and round and could probably hold a decent mug of tea, if the snail wasn't using it. The shell is brown with some faint black blotches towards the pale apex of the spire. The body is pinkish-brown. This snail has four tentacles, all black and all held in a way that makes it look as though they are being blown back by the wind. The two upper windswept and interesting tentacles are long and have eyes at the tip, whereas the lower ones are short olfactory tentacles. Hedleyella falconeri (Caryodidae): New South Wales, Australia © Reiner Richter CC BY-NC-SA https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/51850987
May 18, 2025 at 8:10 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Under a microscope, Elasmias look very different from baby akaleha’. Elasmias have transparent shells and “teeth” in the shell opening
🔬
But since I can’t collect baby akaleha’ to look at them under a scope (they’re endangered), this doesn’t help!

#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 3/4
Two Elasmias shells as viewed under a microscope, on top of a mm ruler. The larger of the two shells is just over 2 mm in shell height. A small projection called an apertural tooth is visible in the shell opening.
August 30, 2025 at 2:07 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
this is not real
March 2012
oil on canvas board

I painted this one night while drunk in college and touched up the ghostly blue slug later. Apparently, Drunk Rose needed a reminder about what is and is not real

#InverteFest #ArtAdventCalendar #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 8/24
Two slugs crawling parallel to one another. One is a smaller red slug with dark blue and white tail, dark blue superior tentacles, a fading dark blue shadow, and other dark blue detailing. The larger slug crawls beside it like a spirit. The spirit slug is bright blue with dark blue and red lines bursting out of its side and dark blue fading to black background on one side of its tail. Below the slugs and to the side is written, "this is not real" in blue and red
December 25, 2024 at 9:25 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Liardetia sp., Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 🇲🇵

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs
Tiny, disc-shaped snail, which has stuck itself to the underside of a leaf.
August 29, 2025 at 5:35 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Chapter 9: Scientific Imagery & Outreach

journal cover of Frontiers of Biogeography vol 16 issue 1
Jan 2024
digital photos

Akaleha: Rota's Native Tree Snails
Dec 2024
PowerPoint and digital photos

#InverteFest #ArtAdventCalendar #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 22/24
Background: A topical white sand beach with bright green rainforest on one side and turquoise ocean on the other. Above, a blue sky streaked with clouds Inset: Two brown partulid land snails sitting on a leaf Outreach poster. The background photo of a partulid tree snail hanging from a leaf divides the poster. On the left is information about two species of partulid tree snails endemic to the Mariana Islands, the Rota tree snail (Partula lutaensis) and the fragile tree snail (Saomana fragilis). On the right side is information about invasive species: predators that eat tree snails (the New Guinea flatworm, Platydemus manokwari; rats, three species in the Rattus genus), herbivores that may damage tree snail habitat (the Philippine deer, Rusa marianna; the Cuban slug, Veronicella cubensis), and large invasive snails (the giant African snail, Lissachatina fulica; the cinnamon bun snail, Satsuma succinecta)
December 25, 2024 at 9:25 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
🤎💜🩷🧡💛🤍
Shells of akaleha luta (Partula lutaensis) range from dark brown & red to bright pink & orange to pearly white, with many pattern variations
🐚🐌
Their bodies are shades of greige, from nearly white to nearly black
🤍🩶🖤
#MolluscMonday #MolluskMonday #JoyOfMolluscs
Close-up photos of five Rota tree snails in the wild. Top row: Left snail's shell is a solid beige with very faint stripes across the shell's spiral. Right snail's shell is solid beige at the tip grading to maroon to nearly black towards the shell opening, with a light orangy-brown ring around the shell opening. Middle row: Left snail's shell is orangy-brown, with a burgundy tip, a dark maroon stripe around the shell's spiral, and a dark brown ring around the opening. Right snail's shell is cream-colored with a burgundy tip. Bottom row: Snail's shell is light olive with orangy-brown stripes across the shell's spiral and a dark brown ring around the opening. Close-up photos of two Rota tree snails in the wild. One snail has a pale, semi-translucent body. The other snail's body is so dark it appears black. Both snails have pale yellow shells with a burgundy ring around the shell opening.
April 21, 2025 at 5:20 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Chapter 6: Personal Adornment

BizCasPets
2020
digital photos

Early in the Pandemic, I embarked on a selfie project, in which I dressed up in business casual-ish attire, inspired by pets. Including, of course, Inverts class pets

#InverteFest 🦀 #ArtAdventCalendar #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌🐚 #shellfie 13/24
Left panel: I lean forward at an angle. I wear a gray wool coat, with the hood up, a black cardigan buttoned at the waist to create a deep V neckline, and a bright orange undershirt. I look up and away, with a quizzical expression: wide, darkly lined eyes and an circular open mouth Right panel: A conch sea snail peaks out of its shell. Its shell is tan and propped up at an angle to show the opening. One side of the opening is covered in a hard, dark brown, almost black, substance, and the other is covered on the inside by a soft, bright orange substance. The snail looks up and away with strikingly round, darkly lined eyes and a circular little mouth Left panel: I'm in a plum-colored skirt suit, holding a brown tabby cat over my head. I look up at the cat with my mouth wide open, teeth bared Right panel: A wine-colored sea urchin sits next to a sign reading, "I didn't like my tank mate, so I ate him RIP pincushion urchin" Left panel: I excitedly read a black "Invertebrates" textbook. I wear a pale green dress, bright blue and orange jewelry, blue lipstick, and orange blush. I hold the textbook in both hands such that my elbows stick out wide to either side Right panel: A crab excitedly holds a black mussel to its face. The crab is pale green, with blue and orange accents. It hold the mussel in both claws such that its "elbows" stick out wide to either side Left panel: I sit on the ground in a red dress with beige accents, off-white tights, red shoes, and a tan sunhat. I look up and away Right panel: A horse conch with red-orange flesh and a tan and brown shell is propped against the side of its tank such that its body faces up and away
December 25, 2024 at 9:25 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Check out my recent papers on Pacific Island land snails
🏝️🐌 #JoyOfMolluscs

Flying Snails
evidence of the taxon cycle & aerial long-distance travel
escholarship.org/uc/item/2c28...

Typhoon Impacts
most spp survived the storm & flooding, including a ground-dwelling endemic
bioone.org/journals/ame...
"Flying snails: immigrant selection and the taxon cycle in Pacific Island land snails" conceptual model of immigrant selection and the taxon cycle in Pacific Island land snails "Not Blown away: Over Three-Quarters of Species in a Pacific Atoll Land Snail Assemblage Remain Five Years Post-Typhoon" poster from the 2024 American Malacological Society Meeting
November 27, 2024 at 7:31 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Yellow Snail
Nov 2019
Play-Doh

#InverteFest #ArtAdventCalendar #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 18/24
A snail with a tan body and a bright yellow shell with tan, white, and blue stripes sits in my hand
December 25, 2024 at 9:25 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
The art of the cheap-ass, last-minute Halloween costume

Sexy Slug
Oct 2015

Tree Snail
Oct 2024

#InverteFest #ArtAdventCalendar #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 #shellfie 15/24
Left panel: I pose in a black body con dress, black tights, and black heals. I wear a headband on which I taped four cardboard "tentacles," hastily colored dark brown with marker Top right: I pose with a DVD of the 1989 horror movie "Slugs" Bottom right: I lay on my belly on a bed, like a crawling slug I wear a tan-colored plastic bag like a backpack, a beige shirt, and a headband with two white zip ties tightened onto it such that the zip ties stick out from my head like tentacles. The plastic has a spiral hastily drawn on in black permanent marker and a cardboard box in it to give it a three-dimensional shape. I look back over my shoulder with a silly grin
December 25, 2024 at 9:25 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Rota's beaches are great for invert spotting

1️⃣ cone snail shell
2️⃣ hermit crabs & crab holes #Crustmas 🦀
3️⃣ giant clam
4️⃣ sea urchin

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐚🦪 12/13
Small cone snail shell sits on the sand. It is white with deep red squarish spots Collage of hermit crabs and holes in the sand dug by crabs. Two of the hermit crabs have bright red legs and eye stocks poking out of turban shells. The third lives in a tiny lime green seashell with black knobs Live giant clam wedged among the coral. Its valves are slightly open, revealing yellow and black flesh A spiny black sea urchin hides under a rock overhang
December 26, 2024 at 4:26 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
In partulid colonies with the worst flatworm infestations, you may find graveyards of empty shells

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 5/13
At least seven empty partulid shells among leaf litter, rocks, and soil. The shells all appear undamaged and unweathered
December 26, 2024 at 4:26 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Chittenango ovate amber snail (Novisuccinea chittenangoensis)
design May 2016, this iteration was made later
original bobbin lace design

This species is endemic to the banks of a single waterfall in Central New York

#InverteFest #ArtAdventCalendar #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 #BobbinLace 3/24
Top panel: Light brown snail made of lace Bottom panel: Photo of live snail upon which the lace piece is based Lace pattern design on which the lace piece is based, drawn on graph paper. Includes a naturalistic drawing of the snail, a more geometric drawing with notes, and a "pricking" pattern with additional notes
December 25, 2024 at 9:25 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Cuban slugs are maybe the worst invasive land snail* on Rota Island. They attack gardens, farms, young trees, & other forest plants, damaging habitats 🙅
Don't let this baby slug fool you - they grow to a few inches long!
*slug = shell-less snail
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs
3/3
Juvenile Cuban slug (Veronicella cubensis) crawling on a clear plastic surface.
April 29, 2025 at 5:24 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Check out some of the native land snail diversity of Rota Island, Northern Mariana Islands
🐌
Most of our native land snails are very small
1️⃣possibly Himeroconcha or Semperdon?
2️⃣Georissa laevigata
3️⃣Omphalotropis
4️⃣Lamprocystis

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs
🧵/4
Top panel: Tiny, disc-shaped snail with a tan shell and dark tentacles. Bottom panel: Tiny, cone-shaped snail with a dark shell and black tentacles. Three cone-shaped snails next to a cm ruler. Two of the snails have dark brown shells about 4 mm long. The third snails has a medium-brown shell about 5 mm long. All three snails are from the same genus, but the larger one is likely a different species from the other two. A honey-colored snail with a disc-shaped shell crawling next to a cm ruler. The shell is about 5 mm wide, and the snail’s extended body is about 9 mm long. The snail has fleshy hook at the end of its tail, which is typical of Family Euconulidae.
April 29, 2025 at 4:44 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Want an #SnailSunday challenge? 🤓 Try to find the snails in these photos!
Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta)

Answers in the alt text

This snail was much harder to find in the field than in the photo

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 1/5
Snail hanging from the underside of the right leaf of sapling.
August 31, 2025 at 12:30 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Clara Peeters clearly had excellent taste in still-life subject #JoyOfMolluscs 🐚
womensartbluesky.bsky.social womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · Sep 19
The Prado, national art gallery of Spain, founded in 1819, only hosted its first solo exhibition of a female artist's work in 2016, 17thc painter Clara Peeters (her work below), not untypical of many major galleries across the world....
#WomensArtHistory
Painting featuring eight differently coloured and shaped sea shell and an empty glasd on a wooden table top
September 19, 2025 at 6:08 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Chapter 7: Sculpture

Christmas Ornaments
Dec 2016
wax

#InverteFest #ArtAdventCalendar #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 17/24
Three Christmas ornaments: a pink and yellow slug, mating slugs, and a pink and yellow snail with a blue and white shell. The mating slugs are yellow, red, and black. They hang upside down and entwinned. Their everted, entwined penes are white and blue
December 25, 2024 at 9:25 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Belated Christmas present from my coworker. I finally have #snart for my new office!

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌
Two framed cartoon-style snail illustrations in front of blank computer monitors. One illustration shows a snail in front of a bathroom sink with a "wash your hands" sign. The other shows two snails are a park swing
December 26, 2024 at 9:45 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Can you find the snail on each of these leaves?
Can you tell their life stages?
🤏juvenile - super small
📏subadult - not-so-small
👄adult - flared "lip" at the shell opening
Answers in captions
#InverteFest #SnailSunday #JoyOfMolluscs
2/4
Adult Partula lutaensis hanging from the underside of a leaf in the top-right third of the image. Subadult Partula lutaensis hanging from the underside of a leaf, near the leaf edge, in the center of the image. Juvenile Partula lutaensis sitting on the top of a leaf just below the central leaf vein in the lower middle of the image. Subadult Partula lutaensis hanging from the underside of a vine leaf in the bottom-right third of the image.
April 27, 2025 at 3:02 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Every time I see an akaleha (partulid tree snails native to the Mariana Islands 🇲🇵🇬🇺), there's a 50-50 chance I will be overcome with wonder and delight. My job is literally to search for and count akaleha
#JoyOfMolluscs 🐌
jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · Mar 23
"But you're a biologist, don't you just...get used to seeing animals?"

Nope, it will never not be super fucking cool to see animals up close, it literally never gets old
Jess holding a ferret while looking absolutely ecstatic Jess grinning like an absolute dork while a bear wanders by on the other side of a fence
March 23, 2025 at 7:41 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Why and how do snails become slugs? This thread won't tell you! But it will tell you about a slug that smells super gross
#JoyOfMolluscs
snailseyeview.bsky.social Bronwen Scott @snailseyeview.bsky.social · Feb 16
I was going to talk about limacisation - the path from snail to semi-slug or slug. Or how on earth are these all in the same genus? (Drymaeus, fam Bulimulidae)

Pics: © Ricardo Arredondo T, © Marco Aurelio de Sena, © David Jeffrey Ringer, © Karl Kroeker CC BY-NC. (Links & details in alt text) (1/7)
Hefty dark grey land snail in chunky cream-coloured shell that almost looks as though it might be from a marine species. (It isn't.) The snail is crawling left to right over a rock with green grass in the backgroumd. Drymaeus dombeyanus: Mexico © Ricardo Arredondo T CC BY-NC https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/21399239 Very odd-looking slug that looks as though it's melting. It has a pointed hump on its back, tapering to an almost flat tail. The colour is lemon yellow ridges and tubercules on white. It is crawling across a twig against a black background. Drymaeus iheringi: Brasil © Marco Aurelio de Sena CC BY-NC https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/178248317 Overhead photo of what looks like a completely melted slug on a leaf. The slug is white with a faint green tint. The overall shape is an oval with a point to the left (tail end). The mantle in the middle is faintly textured, the neck and head to the right are ridged longitudinally, and the foot and tail are covered in almost chequered texture. It's like anaglypta wallpaper come to life. Drymaeus palliolum: Brasil © David Jeffrey Ringer CC BY-NC https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/347571474 Large snail with tall shell (although the shell is actually lying flat). The shell has a pink edge and is marked with multiple brownish comma-shaped markings. Drymaeus luculentus: Peru © Karl Kroeker CC BY-NC https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/72684129
February 16, 2025 at 6:02 AM