Can Drosophila cause infection to snail?

:dizzy:Yesterday discussion started with snail that @Bhavisha CUBE Sophia, @Afida Idrisi CUBE Sophia and their classmates from Sophia College are culturing
:dizzy: They got this giant African land snail from their college campus, near banana tree
:dizzy: When they first got 1 snail From campus, they kept it in a basket and gave it some sprouting mung to eat
:dizzy: But then they saw some fly (that @Bhavisha CUBE Sophia was addressing as Drosophila fly) that was getting attracted to mung and then due to the fly, snail got some infection and it was dead
:dizzy: After snail died they also observed some small white worms near it
:dizzy: I think that the small white worm was larva of the Drosophila fly that @Bhavisha CUBE Sophia noticed when snail was kept near the window Then we discussed about what would happen if we give light touch on snail’s tentacle with a piece of paper or something

:dizzy: As snail’s have two big tentacle with eyes on them, we will take 1 tentacle as test and other as control
:dizzy: We will give light touch on test tentacle and won’t touch the control tentacle
:dizzy: So we think that if we touch test tentacle the control tentacle won’t shrink and test eye will shrink and will take some time to extend again
:dizzy: Like 1st time you touch the tentacle, it will take half an hour to come out and in 2nd touch it will take 20 mins and time will decrease gradually and then it will stop responding to touches
:dizzy: What do you think❓What would happen if we touch only 1 tentacle❓ Won’t other one shrink too❓ And after how many touches will tentacle stop shrinking❓

Reference shared during chatshaala discussion :point_down:t2:
Lissachatina fulica is a species of large land snail that belongs in the subfamily Achatininae of the family Achatinidae. It is also known as the Giant African land snail. It shares the common name “giant African snail” with other species of snails such as Achatina achatina and Archachatina marginata. Wikipedia

https://www.google.com/search?q=Giant+african+snail&oq=Giant+african+snail&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59l2.3192j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

In Samoa, A. fulica is a major pest that feeds on various crops of economic importance, including papaya. This study investigated the feeding strategies of A. fulica and the damage caused to papaya through field and laboratory trials in Samoa. Unripe mature fruits were sampled to assess snail damage.

1 Like

Can we have a few photos of these snails ? @Smiti