Frégate Island Enid snail

The Frégate Island Enid snail is an endangered land snail that occurs exclusively on the small island of Frégate in the Seychelles. Its entire habitat covers only about 2 km² - an extreme example of so-called endemics, i.e. species with a very limited distribution that do not occur anywhere else. The snails live there mainly in damp forests under dead wood and foliage, where they are protected from drying out. In order not to dry out, they also produce large amounts of mucus. They feed on plant material, which they can scrape off using their radula - a "rasping organ" with thousands of tiny teeth.
Following the introduction of rats in the 1990s and the use of poisons to control them, the population of the Frégate Island Enid snail collapsed by 87% within a few years. In the meantime, the population has recovered significantly.
A special feature of this species is that its shell begins to visibly sway for a few seconds when touched. This behavior, which has earned it the nickname "dancing snail", presumably serves to deter predators.
Like all land lung snails, it is an air-breathing mollusc. Instead of gills, land lung snails have a so-called lung cavity - a highly vascularized protrusion of the mantle cavity. Air enters and leaves this protuberance via a small opening. The oxygen enters the snail's bloodstream via the fine vascular structure.
Most land snails are hermaphrodites, i.e. each animal has both male and female sexual organs. However, they still need a partner to reproduce: during mating, the animal acting as the "male" transfers a sperm packet into the sexual opening of the other. Subsequently, egg cells are formed in the so-called hermaphrodite gland and fertilized with the semen received. A few days later, the snail lays its eggs in a small, self-dug hole in the ground or under foliage. As both partners have both male and female functions, they can also fertilize each other and both lay eggs after mating.

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