Garden Visitors

[tropicbreeze]

The unsung heros. Snails are usually given a bad wrap but luckily we have the good ones here. These are Melon Snails, this particular species Xanthomelon durvillii. Only around in the wet season but very common. They're large and have a very hard shell, so hard you'd have to put them on concrete and hit them with  hammer to break the shell. They only eat dead vegetation. Some contractors left some excess concrete at my place and dozens of snails come to it during the wet season to get the lime. They're only out at night and are very sensitive to light. Difficult to get a decent photo before they withdraw into their shells.

 

Evening get together. Often up to 25 individuals getting their fix of lime.

 

Bristle Snail, Parglogenia pelodes. These only eat fungus and are often found on the underside of rotting logs. They're not so uptight about light. This one kept eating after I turned over the log in daylight, although it was a very overcast day.