Nutrition

 Neohelix lioderma, like many pulmonates,  is an herbivore that consumes both living as well as dead plant matter (Grzimek, 2003). Another name for dead plant matter is leaf litter (Grzimek, 2003).  Herbivorous snails feed by moving and combing through their environments to find leaf litter and other sources of food (Grzimek, 2003).  Along with eating plants, this snail will also eat fungi (Grzimek, 2003).

Virtually all gastropods possess a radula. A radula is an organ which has many functions for obtaining food. It is composed of many chitinous teeth (Gillis, 2012).   This tough material can be used to grate (grinding up food into smaller pieces), rasp (eating small chunks of food at a time), and comb (sorting through the environment to find food). (Bourqin 2000).

Although N. lioderma is not carnivorous, many gastropods are.  Carnivorous gastropods use the radula to shred holes in bivalves (Gillis, 2012). Carnivores gastropods will also use the radula to tear flash from other molluscs (Gillis, 2012) Some gastropods are scavengers and use their radula to feed off of decaying flash (Gillis, 2012). 

 

 

 

 

So now we know how the Tulsa Whitelip feeds. Now let's find out how it goes through Reproduction

Breadcrumbs (no pun intended)