Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Making mollusc fans, Part1

Succinea sp. by Bob Gosford

As far as I know myself and Gareth Catt were the first to apply the terminology of birding to snails. I don't go an a snail hunt any more: I go on a 'snail twitch' to 'tick' whatever species I can find.
In birding (AKA birdwatching), the concept of twitching is when one goes haring around the countryside spotting bird species, listing them as you go. Seeing a new species (for you) is referred to as 'getting a tick'. When you depart on one of your species-sighting-accumulation forays you say you are going 'on a twitch'.
Here in the desert you can only twitch live snails when it rains- not a common event. Journalist Bob Gosford had been in touch with me to hear more about my land snail projects but instead I took him out after a thunderstorm to find some local hot gastropods. He started off a little puzzled, but he soon got into it...

Read Bob's snail article here

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