HR: 1330h
AN: NB33P-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Morphological Variation in the New Zealand Mud Snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum).
AU: * Barrow, S
EM: sarah_barrow83@hotmail.com
AF: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Department of Biological Sciences, Southern IL Univ. Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL 62026 United States
AU: Holomuzki, J R
EM: HOLOMUZKI.3@osu.edu
AF: Ohio State University Mansfield, Department of Biology, Ohio State Univ Mansfield, Mansfield, OH 44906 United States
AU: Brunkow, P E
EM: pbrunko@siue.edu
AF: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Department of Biological Sciences, Southern IL Univ. Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL 62026 United States
AB: The New Zealand mud snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) is a morphologically diverse species, showing variation in body shape and spine ornamentation. Native to New Zealand, the snail is highly invasive in the United States and Europe. As part of a broader study examining the role of morphological variation in hydrodynamic performance, we sought to quantify shell variation in snails from four different populations in New Zealand. Shells were mounted and photographed, and four characters (shell length and width, and aperture length and width) were digitized. Shell length differed significantly among populations. Sheared PCA revealed that shell shape, defined in terms of overall robustness (PC1) as well as the ratio between shell width and aperture width (PC2), also differed significantly among populations. Spined shells differed significantly from smooth shells with respect to shell shape (PC1 and PC2), with spined shells being generally more robust with larger apertures for their length. Shell shape differed significantly between spined and smooth shells in the two lotic habitats but not in the lentic habitats, suggesting a possible interaction between shell shape, presence of spines, and hydrodynamic environment. Further research will attempt to relate shell morphology and spine ornamentation to hydrodynamic drag and lift forces.
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly