Adaptation

    Planorbid snails eat bacteria films and algae (Montana Field Guide 2011).They are scrapers of benthic surfaces. In order to scrape their food off of substrates, they use their radular teeth (Baker 1945).

                    These pictures show close up images going from the overall snail to a close up of its radula. The radula possess chitnous teeth which can be seen in these pictures.

    Planorbella pilsbryi has a special way of locomotion. They "glide" through their habitat by using air. An increase in the amount of air in or on the body or shell, with a sudden decrease in air creates a slow, sluggish, smooth movement along a surface (Baker 1945).

    File rams-horn snails are part of the subclass Pulmonata. The name Pulmonata comes from the lain word "pulmo" which means lung. The mantle cavity walls in Pulmonates are vascularized and form a lung sac. This allows the snail to breathe without the need of gills! (Washington 2008) 

 

Go back to the home page, or find out Planorbella's nutrition.