Reproduction:
Like many other pulmonates, land snails and
slugs that use a lung to breathe air, Euconulus fulvus
(Müller 1774) are a
monoeious organism, which means they posses both male and female
sex organs. These snails participate in
internal fertilization and more specifically copulation, which
is the union of sex organs for insemination. Additionally these
snails possess very complex reproductive systems.
However, this process is not the same in all land snail species. Take for example prosobranchs or land snails and slugs that rely on the use of gills to breathe air; these snails are generally dioecious organism. These types of snails have separate mail and female snails, thus meaning they participate in cross-fertilization. Crosse fertilization is the process in which one specific sex of an organism either male or female fertilizes an organism opposite sex with a sperm cell. Yet, in some prosobranches a type of self-fertilization has been observed, allowing these select snails to carry their eggs with them until birth (Gomez 2001).
Next, head over Interactions page to learn about how this snail interactions with a number of different organisms.