Reproduction

Snails are very interesting animals in their ways of reproduction. Most snails are considered to be hermaphrodites, meaning that each snail has a set of male and female reproductive organs but still have to find another snail to mate with. Some have still not adapted to being monoecious and have separate male and female reproductive organs (Snail-world N.D.).

     By the age of one year old, snails are said to be sexually mature and this is because the short life span of most species, this allows for a faster growth rate in the snails (Snail-world N.D.). Mature snails will find a mate and go through a mating ritual lasting between two to twelve hours and at the end the two snails will fertilize the other one, with sperm transfer taking place in packets called spermatophores(Gillis, 2012) (Snail-world N.D.).

    Snails cannot make sounds to call out to a mate so they must use touching as a way of finding a mate, and when they do find a mate they cover each other in a slime that is believed to help them to engage in the mating process (Snail-world N.D.)

 

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