Elimination of Foreign Particles by the Snail, Helix aspersa

Abstract

Brown and Brown¹ have described techniques for investigating the elimination of foreign, non-metabolizable particles from the bodies of invertebrate animals and have applied these techniques to the sandy-beach snail, Bullia. In this prosobranch the particles are phagocytosed by macrophagic haemocytes which migrate to the exterior mainly through the wall of the heart into the pericardial cavity and then through the renopericardial canal into the kidney, leaving the body through the nephropore. Some migration also takes place through the mantle and into the kidney from the surrounding sinuses. Tripp², using different techniques, found that in the fresh water pulmonate, Australorbis, laden amoebocytes migrate mainly through the mantle epithelia and adjacent surfaces. This work has now been extended to the terrestrial snail, Helix aspersa.