Shell-shocked snail ends up in love triangle

A snail who's search for love went public, after an appeal by a scientist at The University of Nottingham, has ended up in a love triangle.

More than 170 baby snails have hatched, six months after the story of Jeremy the ‘lefty’ garden snail and his search for a similarly left-coiling, or sinistral companion, as part of a genetic study.

Dr Davison wanted to breed from Jeremy and found two suitors, but the snail was left shell-shocked after being given the cold shoulder by the two - dubbed Lefty and Tomeu - who instead preferred to mate with each other, and have produced three clutches of eggs between them.

The genetic study is to find out whether the genetics of these rare snails could offer insight into the body asymmetry in other animals, including humans.

Dr Davison said:

This first batch of eggs to hatch were ‘fathered’ by Lefty and laid by Tomeu in April - snails are hermaphrodites so can fulfil the role of either mother or father.

But as the newborns developed it became quickly apparent that in the case of the next generation of these rare creatures two lefts clearly make a right – every single one of the babies has developed with the less rare form of right-coiling, or dextral, shells.

Lefty has since returned home to Ipswich but Dr Davison is still hopeful that Jeremy may be encouraged to mate with Tomeu – and then plans to mate the resulting offspring from the combination of pairings.

In the long term, these crosses may then be used to map and find the genes that determine variation in left-right asymmetry.

Read More: Lonely snail seeks mate for love in genetic study