My apologies for the precipitous drop in blog entries, a measly one for the whole month of August. One thing that has occurred to me is that I could write shorter entries more often. Of course, my problem is that I like to tell a full story with all of the details. I have been working on some other projects lately and have recently started German classes again (more on that in a future entry). I certainly have been busy and have a lot to say I just haven't gotten around to writing about it. Now that I have assuaged my guilt a little, let me tell you about my day.It has been raining intermittently here all day and I have spent a good part of my day in front of the computer working on aforementioned-but-not-explicitly-stated projects. I recently looked out at the tree that is right outside the office window. Since we live on the 3rd floor, it is not uncommon to look out and get closeup views of birds flitting about in the branches. However, today I looked and saw a snail attached to one of the nearby branches. When it rains here, we see snails and slugs all over the streets and on the paths where we do our dog walking. However, this is the first one I have seen in a tree here. I am familiar with tree snails that may be found in sub-tropical and tropical environments but I never knew they existed in more temperate latitudes. I once helped out with a research project looking at tree snail populations in the Florida Everglades. The amazing thing about them was that they were isolated on hardwood islands within the larger wetland ecosystem and therefore evolved to have different shell markings (see photo here). I did some fascinating research on snails today so I thought I should share it with you. I believe my snail is from the Helicidae family and is probably one of these guys/girls here (they are hermaphroditic, so are both male and female at once). If you aren't convinced to have a look, just let me add that they have pictures of their "love darts" there (their term not mine). If you've never seen a snail love dart or heard about how they use them, they give a full explanation here (and more about the "whys" of love darts here). If you are not one for foreplay, and it can be quite long with snails, you can scroll down directly to the section entitled "Application of a Love Dart." If this doesn't pique your interest at all, then you either a) don't have much scientific curiosity or b) don't have the same juvenile sense of humor that finds topics like love darts interesting or amusing. If I can't appeal to you under either of these circumstances, then maybe we should just leave it at this... I saw a snail in the tree outside my window today. But how interesting is that, really?
