Stanhope, Weardale: This collective mollusc hibernation occurs in our garden after the first frosts, when old clay flower pots behind the greenhouse become packed with snails
I probably wouldn’t have noticed the mollusc hibernaculum if my bootlace hadn’t come undone. Crouching down to shelter from the wind behind a dry-stone wall while I retied it, I discovered scores of overwintering garden snails (Cornu aspersum), wedged in the crevices between the rocks.
Each snail was glued to the sandstone by its epiphragm, a layer of solidified mucus, sealing it within its helical shell for the winter, while its metabolism barely ticked over. The innermost animals were lodged deep in the wall, with no room to manoeuvre, so when spring’s wake-up arrives it will surely be a case of first in, last out.
Continue reading...from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2F2QfNM
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