États comportementaux et activité locomotrice chez l'escargot "Achatina achatina" (Linné)

Résumé

Mobility and behavioral states of the African giant snail Achatina achatina L. were studied both in the laboratory and the open field. Behavioral state scores (BSS), derived from animal stereotypic postures, provided a suitable scale of increasing activity. To test whether BSS was correlated with activity, 30 randomly chosen sexually mature snails were removed from a colony and placed on a large bare surface. BSS scores were obtained 5 min later, and the distance each snail moved over the next 5 min was recorded by measuring the length of a thread laid along the mucous trail. BSS can be used to measure Achatina achatina mobility (Table 1 and Figure 1). In the open field, without any stimulus, humidity was the most important factor affecting snail mobility (Table 2).