The present geographical distribution of Lymnaea columella, as recorded in the National Freshwater Snail Collection, is described and discussed. It appears that L. columella is the most successful colonist of all the freshwater snail species in South Africa, and, together with Bulinus tropicus and Lymnaea natalensis, it forms the most widely distributed freshwater snail species in the region. D...

The imaging capabilities of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and MALDI-MS sample preparation methods were combined. We used this method, named matrix-enhanced (ME) SIMS, for direct molecular imaging of nervous tissue at micrometer spatial resolution. Cryosections of the cerebral ganglia of the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis were placed on indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-coat...

Freshwater pond snails Helisoma trivolvis and Lymnaea stagnalis undergo larval development and metamorphosis inside egg capsules. We report that their development is permanently under slight tonic inhibitory influence of the anterior sensory monoaminergic neurones, which are the remnants of the apical sensory organ. Conspecific juvenile snails, when reared under conditions of starvation and cro...

The myomodulin family of neuropeptides is an important group of neural cotransmitters in molluscs and is known to be present in the neural network that controls feeding behavior in the snail Lymnaea. Here we show that a single gene encodes five structurally similar forms of myomodulin: GLQMLRLamide, QIPMLRLamide, SMSMLRLamide, SLSMLRLamide, and PMSMLRLamide, the latter being present in nine cop...

We show that appetitive and aversive conditioning can be analyzed at the cellular level in the well-described neural circuitries underlying rhythmic feeding and respiration in the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. To relate electrical changes directly to behavior, the snails were first trained and the neural changes recorded at multiple sites in reduced preparations made from the same animals. Cha...

Aerial respiratory behaviour in the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, can be operantly conditioned. This associative learning then undergoes consolidation into a long-lasting memory which, depending on the training procedure used, causes intermediate-term memory (ITM; lasting 3 h) or long-term memory (LTM; lasting >6 h) to be formed. We determined the differential susceptibility of these two forms...

The osphradium of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis was studied to determine the stimuli to which this organ responds. The following stimuli were tested: hypoxia, hypercapnia, a mixture of amino acids, a mixture of citralva and amyl acetate and a mixture of lyral, lilial and ethylvanillin. The mean nerve activity consistently increased with elevated PCO2, whereas hypoxia produced variable effect...

Experimental infections of Lymnaea truncatula with a digenean species (Fasciola gigantica, F. hepatica, or Paramphistomum daubneyi) were performed under laboratory conditions to study the effect of four sources of food (microalgae, romaine lettuce, wheat germs, or modified Boray diet) on cercarial production. The mean number of F. hepatica, F. gigantica, or P. daubneyi cercariae was significant...