Journal of Applied Animal Research

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Eggs Incubation Period and Hatching Success

of the African Giant Land Snail (Archachatina
marginata) Swainson in Different Incubation Media

E. A. Agbelusi & E. O. Adeparusi

To cite this article: E. A. Agbelusi & E. O. Adeparusi (1999) Eggs Incubation Period and Hatching
Success of the African Giant Land Snail (Archachatina�marginata) Swainson in Different Incubation
Media, Journal of Applied Animal Research, 15:1, 57-62, DOI: 10.1080/09712119.1999.9706231

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09712119.1999.9706231

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J. Appl. Anim. Res. 15 (1999) : 57-62

Eggs Incubation Period and Hatching Success

of the African Giant Land Snail (Archachatina
rnarginata) Swainson in Different
Incubation Media
E.A. Agbelusi, E.O. Adeparusi
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Federal University of Technology
F.M.B. 704, Akure, Nigeria

(Revised received October 5, 1998; accepted December 1, 1998)

Abstract
Agbelusi, E.A. and Adeparusi, E.O. 1999. Eggs incubation period and
hatching success of t h e African G i a n t l a n d snail (Archachatilia.
inargiiiata) Swainson i n different incubation media. J. Appl. Anim.
Res., 15 : 57-62.
bicubatioii period and hatching success was irivestigated iii the African
giant land snail - Archachatina marginata. Four differeiit media
with varying moisture coitteiit were used for egg incubation. The results
revealed that too much or too little moisture conteitt in the iiicubatioii
media either prolonged the incubartionperiod or prevented hatchiiig.
Egg hatchability on the damp soil was 30% while it was highest in
moist soil at 82% success. Eggs incubated in both the dry soil and the
sa,wdust became crystallised. T h i s s h o w s t h a t h i g h ainbieitt
teniperature coupled with little inoisture content in the incubation
media prevented the developinelit of the embryo to maturity. The linear
regression shows that there is mi inverse relationship between moisture
coiiteiit of the soil arid iiuinbers of uiideveloped eggs (r = -0.77) while
there is a direct relationship between temperature and numbers o f
undeveloped eggs (r = +0.92). bicubatioit period ranged between 32 to
57
J. Appl. Anim. Res. 0971-2119/99/$5.00 0 GSP, India
58 E.A. Agbelusi and E.O. Adeparusi

42 days iiL the d a m p soil while it wa.s betweeii 23 to 30 days iii the
inoist soil. These results iiidicate tha.t soil with optiirimi inoisture
contents should be chosen for snail reariig iii order to ensure good
siiail yield and productivity.
Keywords : Egg hatching success, giant African land snail, incubation
period, sawdust, hatching spread.

Introduction
The African giant land snail, Archa,ch,atii~amargii~ata(Swainson) is a
pulmonate gastropod mollusc t h a t inhabits the dense forest and the
fringe forest of savanna where the conditions are favourable. This animal
is rare in brackish areas and absent in arid and desert zones (Segun,
1975).
Segun (1975) reported that the incubation period in the giant land-
snail is between 35 and 42 days, while Ajayi et al. (1978) observed a n
incubation period of 30 to 45 days. The variation in incubation period
is attributed t o the fact that eggs of snails are laid with embryos at
different stages of development. Plummer (1975) cited by Awesu (1980),
however, opines that incubation period in this species might be related
to soil temperature. I t was observed from her studies that incubation
period was between 35 to 41 days a t a temperature of 17-19C. At a
temperature of 22.5-23C the incubation period was between 29 and 35
days.
In this study hatching success, incubation period and the hatching
spread of eggs incubated in different media, were examined.

Materials and Methods

The study was carried out a t the Federal University of Technology,
Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. The climate is tropical with two distinct
seasons. The wet season is from April to October while the dry season
runs from November to March. The annual rainfall is about 1613mm
and annual mean temperature of about 16C.
The study was conducted in a snail pen of 72m3 made up of 1.5m
high block cement topped with a n additional height of l m of double
layers of both chicken mesh wire and mosquito netting material. This
 Incubation of African Giant laird snail 59

was to avoid predation on and/or escape of the snails. The pen was
located in an open space for adequate CFOSS ventilation.
The floor of the pen was covered with humus soil and planted with
cover crops to provide shade, simulate the natural habitat, as well as
serve as food for the snails. The planted crops include pawpaw (Carica
papaya), banana (Musa paradisiaca), water leaf (Talinuin triaugular),
wild cocoyam (Colocasia esculeuta) and sweet potato (Ipomea batata).
Three replicate treatments each lasting for 45 days, were used.
Wooden incubation boxes (1 x 0.3 x 0.3m) were constructed for the study.
The treatments were repeated one after the other. Each box was filled
up with the different incubation materials - sawdust, dry, moist and
damp soil. For each trial 50 eggs were incubated in each medium. A
total of 600 eggs were used. These eggs were obtained from 200 adult
snails that were stocked and maintained on the successfully established
cover crop in the pen. Eggs were allocated to each treatment on random
basis.
Eggs were embeded in each medium to a depth of between 2 to
5cm and sparingly covered. The dry soil and the sawdust, were left
without water for the duration of the experiment. The moist soil was
sprinkled with 500ml water twice a week while the damp soil was wetted
with 500ml water daily.
The temperature of each incubation was recorded at 0900 and 1600
hour daily. Eggs in all boxes were checked daily to ascertain the date
when the first and the last egg hatched. Constant checking was carried
out as soon as hatching started. After 45 days unhatched eggs were
broken to reveal the content. The data enumerate from the experiment
was subjected to linear regression analysis.

Results and Discussion

No egg hatched on dry soil or sawdust (Table 1).Hatching success of
30%was obtained from eggs in the damp soil while the highest success
of 82% was recorded from eggs on the moist soil. The incubation period
in the moist soil ranged from 22 to 30 days while it was 33-42 days in
the, damp soil.
60 E.A. Agbelusi and E.O. Adepariisi

Table 1
Egg hatching period and hatchability percentage in
different incubation media

Incubation medium
Dry soil Sawdust Moist soil Damp soil
Moisture content 30 25 65 90
Temperature range 26-30 28-30.5 22.8-28 22-26
% of egg hatched 0 0 82h2.53 30h1.57
Incubation period (d) 0 0 23-30 32-45
Embryonic mortality (%) 0 0 11.3h0.75 48.7h1.35
Empty shell (%) 13.3*1.25 12.0*1.23 4.0*0.54 5.3h0.75
Undeveloped eggs (oh) 86.7h1.75 88.0h2.10 2.7h0.56 16.0h0.38

Out of a total 600 eggs t hat were incubated only 168 hatched, 90
had embryonic mortality. 290 eggs were not developed while 5 2 were
empty. The sawdust and dry soil had the highest number of undeveloped
eggs as well as empty shells while moist soil had the least. Embryonic
mortality was highest on the damp soil, followed by the moist soil.
The present study demonstrates t h a t egg hatchability in this
species is environmentally induced and was highly dependent on the
incubation media. This also shows that the temperature of these
incubation media could be imposing limitation on egg development. This
is in agreement with the findings of both Plummer (1975) and Awesu
(1980) that incubation period i n s n a i l might be r e la te d to soil
temperature.
It was found out that eggs incubated in dry soil with temperature
of 26-30C were found to have become solid with a deep yellow colour when
broken after 45 days of incubation. However, some of the eggs showed
signs of embryonic development to a certain stage before they dried off.
But in the case of eggs incubated in the sawdust with a temperature range
of 28-30.5C, these became solidified without any sign of development. This
observation conforms with the findings of Hodasi (1978) who reported that
snail eggs incubated in dry coarse sandy soil as well a s those in dry humus
soil never hatched due to moisture limitation.
 Incubation of African Giant lalid snail 61

Eggs incubated in the damp soil with soil temperature of 22-26C

recorded the highest embryonic mortality in which the majority of eggs
developed to full maturity but failed to hatch. This shows that too much
or too little moisture in the incubation medium would have adverse
effect on egg hatchability.
It was observed that not all the eggs in a batch hatched on the
same day. Similar observations have been made by Awesu (1980),
Plummer (1975) and Segun (1975). This also conforms with their
findings that “snail eggs are laid with embryos a t different stages of
development”. Eggs on the moist soil recorded the least hatching spread
of 4 days.
During this study it was observed that when newly laid eggs were
exposed to room temperature of 26-30C they made cracking sound. Such
crack in eggs incubated in dry media could have allowed the egg content
to leak away thereby resulting in the empty shells recorded in media.
The inter-relationship between moisture content, temperature and the
numbers of undeveloped eggs were calculated. It was observed that there
is an inverse relationship between moisture content of the soil and
number of undeveloped eggs (r = -0.77) while there is a direct relation-
ship between temperature and number of undeveloped eggs (r = +0.92).
It is concluded that for the best hatching results, eggs should be
hatched on moist soil with 23-30C temperature.

Acknowledgements
We thank the Federal University of Technology, Akure for funding this
research. We are also grateful to Prof. T.A. Afolayan for his comments.
References
Ajayi, S.S., Tewe, O.O., Moriarty, and Awesu, M.O. 1978. Observations on the biology
and nutritive value of the African giant snail Archachatina marginata.
East African Wildlife J., 16(Z): 85-95.
Awesu, M.O. 1980. The biology and domestication of the African giant land snail
Archachatina marginata. A.M. Phil Thesis submitted to the Department
of Forest Resources Management, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Hodasi, J.K.M. 1978. Preliminary studies on the ecology of African giailt snail
Achatina achatina. East African Wildlife J., 16(2): 45.
62 E.A. Agbelusi and E. 0. Adeparusi

Owen, D.F. 1964. Bimodal occurrence of breeding in an equatorial land snail

Lirnicolaria martensiana. Ecology, 45: 862.
Plummer, J.M. 1975. Observations on the repreduction, growth and longevity of a
laboratory colony of Archachatina rnarginata (Swainson) subspecies
Ovum. Proc. Malac. SOC.of London, 41: 395-413.
Segun, A.O. 1975. The giant African land snail Archachatina rnargiitata Swainson.
Ethiope Publishing Corporation, Benin City, Nigeria.

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