Association between shell morphology of micro-land snails (genus Plectostoma) and their predator’s predatory behaviour
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Abstract
Predator-prey interactions are among the main ecological interactions that shape the diversity of biological form. In many cases, the evolution of the mollusc shell form is presumably driven by predation. However, the adaptive significance of several uncommon, yet striking, shell traits of land snails are still poorly known. These include the distorted coiled “tuba” and the protruded radial ribs that can be found in micro-landsnails of the genus Plectostoma. Here, we experimentally tested whether these shell traits may act as defensive adaptations against predators. First, we identified the predators, namely, Atopos slugs and Pteroptyx beetle larvae, and their predatory strategies towards Plectostoma snails. Then, we characterised and quantified the possible anti-predation behaviour and shell traits of Plectostoma snails both in terms of their properties and efficiencies in defending against the Atopos slug predatory strategies, namely, shell-apertural entry and shell-drilling. The results showed that Atopos slugs would first attack the snail by shell-apertural entry, and, should this fail, shift to the energetically more costly shell-drilling strategy. We found that the shell tuba of Plectostoma snails is an effective defensive trait against shell-apertural entry attack. None of the snail traits, such as resting behaviour, shell thickness, shell tuba shape, shell rib density and intensity can protect the snail from the slug’s shell-drilling attack. However, these traits could increase the predation costs to the slug. Further analysis on the shell traits revealed that the lack of effectiveness these anti-predation shell traits may be caused by a functional trade-off between shell traits under selection of two different predatory strategies. Lastly, we discuss our results in the framework of Red Queen predator-prey coevolution and escalation, and propose several key elements for future study.
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2013. Association between shell morphology of micro-land snails (genus Plectostoma) and their predator’s predatory behaviour. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e86v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.86v1Author comment
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Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Thor-Seng Liew conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper.
Menno Schilthuizen contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper.
Field Study Permissions
The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
The permissions for the work in the study sites were given by the Wildlife Department of Sabah (JHL.600-6/1 JLD.6, JHL.6000.6/1/2 JLD.8) and the Economic Planning Unit, Malaysia (UPE: 40/200/19/2524).
Grant Disclosures
The following grant information was disclosed by the authors:
project 819.01.012 of the Research Council for Earth and Life Sciences (ALW-NWO), The Netherlands
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding the deposition of related data:
http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.#####
Funding
This study is funded under project 819.01.012 of the Research Council for Earth and Life Sciences (ALW-NWO). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
