Milk snail

Description

Otala lactea, known as the milk snail or Spanish snail, is a large, edible species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk, in the family Helicidae, the typical snails. Archaeological recovery at the Ancient Roman site of Volubilis, in Morocco, illustrates prehistoric exploitation of O. lactea by humans. This species of snail is native to the western Mediterranean Basin in the southern Iberian Peninsula, Morocco, Algeria, Balearic and Canary Islands, Malta and Corsica. It has been introduced to the Azores, Madeira, United States, including Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, and to Bermuda, Cuba, and southeastern Australia. This snail creates and uses love darts as part of its courtship behaviour, prior to mating. The shell of the snail plays an important role on its quality of life. This is because the calcium in the snails shell allows for shell regeneration to take place, if the shell was ever to be broken. O. lactea has developed the evolutionary adaptation of estivation to help it deal with harsh conditions such as drought or famine. During this time, O. lactea suppresses its metabolism. This effects many of the body functions. On a cellular level, this conversion from normal to estivation is seen impacting the Na+/K+-ATPase function. The Na+/K+-ATPase activity has been shown to be significantly reduced during estivation. As the Na+/K+-ATPase pump uses quite a lot of ATP, the suppression of this pump plays a key role in the conversion to estivation in the O. lactea. Otala is a genus of land snails in the subfamily Helicinae of the family Helicidae. Archaeological evidence in Morocco indicates the exploitation of O. lactea by ancient Romans as a food source. This genus of snail is native to northwestern Africa and southwestern Europe. These snails create and shoot love darts as part of their courtship and mating behavior.