Intraspecific trait variation in the land snail Rumina decollata

LARA CIFOLA; JULIA PIZA; NICOLÁS BONEL

Amsterdam

Workshop; Simultaneously Hermaphroditic Organisms Workshop 2023; 2023

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Gastropods make up a large part of the animal biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems. Rumina decollata is a hermaphrodite land snail native to the Mediterranean area with a current extensive distribution in Asia and America mainly due to anthropogenic introductions. In Argentina, it is currently inhabiting from Patagonia to the north of our country where it is established in regions with extreme climatic characteristics (aridity and a wide range of temperatures). Environmental conditions exert a strong selection pressure on land snails, significantly modifying life history traits and, consequently, their ability to colonize new habitats. We seek to understand how R. decollata manages to establish itself in different ecosystems. The first step was to explore phenotypic variation and its association with environmental rearing conditions, reproductive strategies, and population origin. We compared fecundity rate, hatching time, juvenile survival, and individual growth between 1) wild-caught and first-generation lab-reared snails, 2) selfing and outcrossing individuals, and 3) wild-caught individuals from native and non-native populations. Preliminary results indicated contrasting trait variability within each group. The next step is to obtain more generations of snails raised in common garden laboratory conditions to estimate heritability and to perform quantitative genetic analyses. Understanding what processes are driving trait variation is essential to determine the potential of this cosmopolitan species to increase its distribution ranges.