Modes of Life of

Gastropoda

Gastropods live just about everywhere on Earth - salt water,

fresh water, and on land. In the ocean, they live in both
shallow, intertidal areas and the deep sea.

REPRODUCTION OF
DIFFERENT SEXES
The gametes released into the water for fertilization
to take place outside the female.

The fertilized egg hatches into a free-swimming form

(trochophore larva).

Upon the expansion of the ciliary girdle of the

trochophore larva into large, heavily ciliated lobes
(vela), the larva, called a veliger, undergoes torsion,
a 180 twisting of the body that brings the posterior
part of the body to an anterior position behind the
head.

In some species the swimming veliger stage persists for

weeks or even months. The veliger has a small shell into
which the velar lobes and head can be withdrawn and a
larval heart that seems to exist solely to provide
circulation in the velar lobes.

After metamorphosis, the juvenile snail starts a typical pattern of

rapid growth until sexual maturity, at which point growth either
ceases or is greatly slowed as energy is diverted to the production
of the next generation.

REPRODUCTION OF SAME SEXES

(HERMAPHRODITES)
In some species, pallial reproductive tubes of male
and female become closed tubes, and a male
copulatory organ develops on the right side of the
head for transmission of sperm to the female.

The trochophore and veliger stages are passed within

an egg mass or capsule provided with a food supply,
rather than as free-swimming immature organisms that
must find their own food.

At first, provision of nutriment for the young

probably involved laying eggs in a mucous mass.

As evolution progressed, more rigid capsules containing

yolk and with a protective cover might have been laid
singly or in masses. Some species currently provide
parental care of the eggs or egg mass.

Finally the eggs are retained inside a brood pouch or

the uterus of some species until the young are ready to
hatch (ovoviviparity).

Respiration
Almost all marine gastropods breathe with a gill, but many freshwater species,
and the majority of terrestrial species, have a pallial lung

Circulatory system
Gastropods have open circulatory system and the transport fluid is
hemolymph. Hemocyanin is present in the hemolymph as the respiratory
pigment.

Excretory system
The primary organs of excretion in gastropods are nephridia, which produce
either ammonia or uric acid as a waste product. The nephridium also plays an
important role in maintaining water balance in freshwater and terrestrial
species.