Mating Behaviour In Lymnaea Stagnalis Pond Snails Is A Maternally Inherited, Lateralised Trait

Functional specialisation of the brain and associated 'handedness' has traditionally been considered an adaptation that is confined to humans and other vertebrates, but recent studies have begun to reveal that a range of invertebrates are also handed in their behaviour.


As part of an undergraduate project, we showed that the sexual behaviour of a pond snail is handed and corresponds to the direction of coiling of the shell.


As mirror-image snails also tend to have mirror-image brains, these findings suggest that the handedness of the sexual behaviour of snails is set up when they are still embryos, and is a direct consequence of the coiling asymmetry of their body.


Royal Society Journal Biology Letters


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Biology Letters