| Soft tissues | go to anatomy of the shell |
Mouth with the radula (tongue):
|
 Close up of the radula. You can see a row of wide teeth. |
Esophagus:
Digestive gland:
Eyes: The eyes of the apple snail are located at the base
of the tentacles.
The eyes of the apple snail are not capable to give the snail a good view on the world.
They rather function as light sensors and give the snail information on the direction
where the light comes from.
Tentacles: The tentacles are very important sensory organs. Apple snails
highly relies on the smell and the sensitivity of their tentacles to navigate in their
environment.
Osphradia: The osphradius is a chemosensory structure that
is located in the right mantle cavity. The osphradius gives the snail the capability
to smell substances in the water.
Apple snails have a lung and gills. This makes the apple snail less
dependent on the oxygen-levels of the water and it gives the animal the capability to
survive periods of drought.
The following structures can be found:
Ctenidia: The ctenidia are the gills of the apple snail. These
structures can be found in the right mantle cavity.
Siphon: Air breathing tube formed by the mantle edge. When not in use,
the siphon is no more than edge of the mantle, situated above the head of the snail. This
muscular mantle-edge can form a tube with gives the snail the ability to breath while it's
still beneath the surface. In this way the snail doesn't have to come to the surface,
where it's any easy target for snail-eating birds.
Lung: The apple snail has a vascularized pulmonary sac to get oxygen out
of the air.
The pericardium consist of an auricle and a ventricle.
The blood is flows trough the heart from the auricle, through the ventricle
and then passes the lung and the gills after which it flows trough the body
and back to the heart. (*1)
The kidney is connected with the pericardium with a renopericardial
ductus. The renal aperture (opening) is situated in the upper region of the right mantle
cavity.
Male reproductive system
The male reproductive tract can be divided in four parts: the testis and vas
deferens, the seminal vesicle, the prostate gland,
and the penis with the penis sheath.
The testis can be found in the upper part of the shell on the upper side of the digestive
gland. The short tubules from the testis fuse and form the vas deferens. The vas deferens
passes down to the seminal vesicle, beneath the kidney chamber. In this seminal vesicle,
the sperm can be stored.
The prostate gland is closely connected with the seminal vesicle and lays side by side
with the seminal vesicle. The prostate gland passes down the right margin of the mantle
skirt and connects with the penis alongside the anus.
The penis is coiled in a basal pouch when not used. On erection the penis is grasped
around by a muscular sheath from the mantle. Its the latter which can be seen when the
snails are mating. The real penis is rather whip-like, thin and is enclosed in the
muscular penis sheath.
Female reproductive system
I haven't found good information about this yet.
The muscular foot is used for "creeping" locomotion.
Note 1, 2003: It's trhe other way around: The blood comes from the lung and the gill and flows to the heart and is then pumped througout the rest of the body.
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(c) 1998 by Stijn Ghesquiere
All rights reserved.
An eating apple snail.