Newly-hatched Snails

A couple of weeks ago I posted some pictures of garden snail eggs that had been found by Chantelle Kerr, one of our research students, that showed the calcium carbonate crystals in the egg shells. Well now she has hatched them out and here they are ....

Each is about the size of the head of a dressmaker's pin, less that 2mm. in diameter, and the shell is translucent so you can see the snail's organs inside. I think the yellowish blob at the top of the shell might be the digestive gland. This one is taking a cautious peek out from under the shell, at the scary world outside ...

 ... checking that the coast is clear.........

........ and making a dash for safety.

It seems that they ate the egg shells when they emerged, so all those calcium carbonate crystals have now been recycled into that translucent shell.

If it survives to adulthood, this is what it'll look like. There go the lettuces....