Morphology of radula and shell in land snail Caucasotachea lencoranea and slug Drusia ibera in the east of Tehran province

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

• nasim Aghaei ¹
• Elham Ahmadi ²

¹ Payam noor univercity

² Agricultural Zoology Research Department, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran.

10.22067/ijab.2023.79315.1043

Abstract

Caucasotachea lencoranea and Drusia ibera are important agricultural and garden pests in Iran, and in some years their high population causes serious damage in gardens and agricultural fields. In order to better control these pests and improve their management strategies, morphological knowledge of these animals is important. The target species were collected from the walnut orchards of Targhian village and Roudehen city during the years 2021 and 2022. The samples were preserved in 70% alcohol after being killed in cold water. In the laboratory, the radulae of the samples were extracted and stained using Mallery II dye, and the dental formula, the teeth, and shell morphology were examined. The length of the central tooth was different in these two species. Species D. ibera had one central tooth, forty lateral teeth, and 15 marginal teeth in 14,842 tooth rows. The species C. lencoranea had one central tooth, eighteen side teeth and 23 marginal teeth in 1152 tooth rows. In terms of the difference in the shells of these two species, we can mention their size, which in the adult species C. lencoranea has a large shell with an average length of 21.5 175 mm and 0.45 + 30.75 mm in the adult species. D. ibera, the length of the shell is 5 ± 0.15 and the width is 10 + 0.45 mm. Also, a significant correlation was observed between the environmental factors of temperature and humidity with changes in the population of the studied species.

Keywords

• Caucasotachea lencoranea
• Drusia ibera
• radula
• shell
• population fluctuations

Main Subjects

• Morphology

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