Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org

Reproduction

    All reproductive information is based off of the observed habits of A. profunda and A. townsendiana. We believe that A. lombardii likely has similar reproductive habits. 

    Courtship begins when one snail protrudes its jaw and radula as much as possible and bites its mate on the head. These actions may be done to increase protrusion of the sex organs (Webb, 1948).

    Once the protruded penis becomes visible, it is touched against its mate’s organ and complete eversion follows. At this point coitus commences and the animals begin to gnaw at the simulator portion of their mate’s penis (Webb, 1948).

    This mating process has been observed to take as long as 3 hours 45 min in A. townsendiana and may take even longer (Steensma, 2009). Examples of the reproduction process is as follows:
Quick short clip of mating in 13 seconds:  http://youtu.be/RZUfZ7zmI24
Another clip, better showing mating process from aerial view: http://youtu.be/-g8D5ZogGbU

    Large snail species like A. lombardii do not often die due to the stresses of reproduction, which can be common amongst smaller snail species (Frest, 1997). In a snail’s life cycle, reproduction most often takes place in the moist months from April to June. Comparison