Blown with the wind — the role of wind in passive dispersion of two land snails: Vertigo moulinsiana and Vertigo antivertigo

Abstract

The role of airborne transport was suggested to be especially important for the species of minute, self-fertilizing land snail. Therefore, the force of the wind plays a potentially significant role for the transportation of land snails between patches of fragmented environment. However, so far, the topic of the influence of wind gusts on the dispersion of these animals has not been investigated comprehensively. In this study, we tested the role of the wind in passive dispersal modes of two species of land snails: Vertigo moulinsiana (Dupuy, 1849) and Vertigo antivertigo (Draparnaud, 1801). We conducted experiments under controlled, laboratory conditions, exposing both active and inactive adult snails attached to the leaves of sedges to wind. The results presented herein prove that the wind force had a significant impact on the studied species, successfully detaching both active and inactive individuals from leaves. During the 30 min treatment, gusts detached over 20% of all individuals of the studied species. However, individuals of V. moulinsiana were carried farther than V. antivertigo.