Interactions
Allogona ptychophora has multiple interactions with other
species, which has been found in research done on this snail and
the snails in the Allogona genus. The first type of interaction is parasitic,
this was discovered in research done by Patrick Carney who is a
part of the Department of Zoology at University of Montana,
Missoula. Carney did an experiment with Brachylecithum mosquensis which is a trematode.
A trematode is a class found in the phylum Platyhelminthes, trematodes are
one of the two parasitic classes found in the Platyhelminthes phylum.
Often trematodes are referred to as flukes. He studied the infections of this trematode in a robin, carpenter ant, and
Allogona ptychophora.
The trematode was experimentally cycled through the above hosts
to a third generation, all which was done in a laboratory (Carney,
1970). To do this Carney took eggs that were found in
sac-like cysts of infected Robins, and fed the eggs to the snails. The
snails then became infected with the trematode and successfully carried the
trematode through three of its' generations. Proof that Allogona ptychophora did in fact
host the trematode, was found in one of two ways. One way
was the production of a slimeball containing cercariae which is
the free swimming larval stage of a parasitic trematode. The
second way the snail proved to be infected was by necropsy upon
death, which is an examination or autopsy that was done to the
snail once it had died
(Carney, 1970).
Another way that snails in the Allogona genus interact with other organisms such as humans is in a way that is threatening to this genus. In areas where the snails habitat is things such as agricultural uses, logging, and urbanization are causing threats to these snails. These things will also cause fragmentation which in turn will cause isolation of the snails, negatively affecting the snails in the Allogona genus (COSEWIC,2002).
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