50 



snail fecal content, discussed in Section 4 of this chapter, was used 

 to determine what material the snail was ingesting. 



In several areas, the author observed the absence of the mucilage 

 in areas traversed by £. dormani . This is possibly the normal course of 

 events where, under natural conditions, wind, abrasion, and rain may 

 cause the breaking away of the mucilage (Figure 20) until the entire 

 surface is cleaned and just the waxy surface of the fruit remains 

 (Figures 20 and 21). 



The forward movement of the snail easily could provide areas where 

 the foot had traveled while not covered by feeding. Figure 22 demon- 

 strates this phenomena. One-half (the right side) of the photographed 

 surface is clean of surface material with the exception of mucilage. 

 The center left of the figure shows the area covered by the foot not 

 yet grazed. The reduction of mycelia in this area was due to the strings 

 of mycelia being pulled away by adjacent feedings. The remaining sur- 

 face showed no signs of mucilage and the flora still remained. This is 

 a good example of the transition from grazing to nongrazing and was 

 generally indicative of samples taken. 



Close observation of exposed fruit surface, that is those surfaces 

 devoid of mucilage or debris, permitted observations into the effect 

 the snail might have on the fruit's waxy layers. No damage was evident 

 on the waxy layer of any of the surfaces viewed. The only effect the 

 snail had was to remove all surface material and/or to deposit its slimy 

 mucilage. As was expected, there was no damage to the surface of the 

 fruit. If damage had occurred it would have been manifested as scar 

 tissue on the fruit and observed in the field. Studies using the 

 scanning electron microscope failed to detect any surface damage. If 



