a 
216 HELIX POMATIA. 
Reproduction and Development.—In early spring, shortly after 
their emergence from their winter retreats, 7. pomatiu He to pai, 
the act usually t taking place at night and being always preceded by a series 
of peculiar actions, w vhich have been carefully observed by Mr. Jackson’ 
during his unsuccessful attempts to mate a sinistral specimen with others 
dextrally organized. 
The animals, when seized with the desire for sexual congress, apparently 
become greatly excited, and when in contact with their prospective partner, 
they rear themselves up with their footsoles closely appressed together, 
sometimes reaching with the tentacles a height of nearly four inches from 
the ground, and being only 
supported by their tails and 
the apices of their shells. 
When thus reared up = 2 ie 
they sway from side to side, LS ag fA 
until their tentacles almost 
touch the ground, and then 
slowly resume the vertical oe 
position. ‘hen one animal ? Se" 
will rear above its partuer, 
and force it slowly back oe 
within its shell until only i? 
the tentacles are visible 
this performance being in 
its tum repeated by the 
other snail. 
During all these various i nest oe 
amatory blandishments the Fic. 293.— Preliminary amatory coquettings of H. fomatia 
: S : S. D (after C. Pfeiffer). 
animals emit great quanti- 
ties of mucus and with every sign of pleasure are continually fondling 
each other with their tentacles ‘and palpi, their mouths also being in 
close contact, and a curious sibilant smacking sound being emitted, the 
copulatory organs are meanwhile exserted from the body, ‘and the love- 
darts are simultaneously rapidly protruded and withdrawn, frequently 
crossing each other, and probably irritating and pricking the integument 
of one or both snails, the darts being eventually torn from their sheaths 
in the conflict, and becoming entangled with the body mucus are lost. 
The eggs, which are deposited shortly after congress, from May to 
September, are rough and globular, of an opalescent greenish- white 
when fresh, and about four to six mill. in diameter, the larger size being 
probably partially due to increase by absorption of moisture from the damp 
ground: the calcareous enol gradually becomes of a dull white and so 
firm that the eggs can be “blown” for preservation, like those of a bird. 
They are deposited in clusters of from ten to forty or more eggs, and 
buried to a depth of two or three inches in the loose moist earth ; they 
hatch in twenty to thirty days, according to the weather ; but of a large 
percentage of the eggs hatched, the young never reach the surface, but die 
below ground, where their clean and empty shells may be found. 
The more vigorous young when hatched are said to make their first meal 
below ground upon the egg-cases and to have made a considerable growth 
when they emerge from the earth; the young snails then bearing perfectly 
transparent horn-coloured shells, about eight millimetres in diameter, at 
1 Journ. of Conch., vol. xi., p. 341, July 1906. 
