Facts
Well hello and welcome to the (Random) Facts page. These are just some cool tid-bits of information we thought you might want to know. Shall we begin?
As we've shown you in our
Classifications page, Fumonelix orestes belongs to the
Order Stylommatophora. As stated in National Geographic News, common
to this order, "love darts"
are used during reproduction.
The snails
shoot off calcareous "darts" at the snails they want to copulate
with as part of a courtship ritual. The snails reproduce with
whoever shot them with the most "love darts." This is thought to
have been where the myth of Cupid came about
(National Geographic
2012). Unfortunately, Fumonelix orestes does not use such a
method in courtship. See the Reproduction
section for more details.
Encyclopedia of life further elaborates on the love dart status and classifications for F. orestes in stating that the family Polygyridae do not have love darts, which is why F. orestes do not either as that feature was lost, and another feature that sets Polygyridae apart from the rest would be the ridges in the mouth (Encyclopedia of Life, 2012).
An other interesting fact about snails is that they have two sets of tentacles on their faces, one set are used for sight and the other is used for taste and smell (Purchon, 1968).