Daily Science Dose

Friday. Friday Friday Friday. Feelin’ a little…dulled out. Feelin’ a little…zombie.

Maybe it’s the new medicine. Maybe it’s because I’ve been sleeping on the couch instead of on my bed. There’s a lot of clean laundry on my bed, and every night, I’m too tired to put it away.

This morning, I had a special surprise. I was on the couch in the living room, where the blinds don’t close all the way, sleeping, sleeping. The sun came out and dried up all the rain.

?

Silly Cymbalta. What are you doing to my brain?

Anyway. The sun came out and way totally woke me up. I couldn’t get back to sleep. It was about 6am. I remembered that I had bought one of those sorta ridiculous black sleep masks once upon a time, after a similar sun/sleep fiasco, so I started searching for it. Where would I keep such a thing? In the sock drawer? In the underwear drawer? In the bra drawer?

I never found the mask, but guess what I keep in my bra drawer?

A clutch of apple snails!*

That’s right! About a hundred and seventy apple snail eggs, all packed together in a crispy clutch.

My first concern was whether the clutch was still viable. It didn’t seem likely, as I had no idea how long it had been in there. It was pretty dry. The clutches, while laid above the water line, need to be kept in a humid environment. My dresser drawers are not very humid. They are, however, immediately beneath the snail tank.

I’m thinking that the clutch, unseen by me, must have fallen off during a tank cleaning, or while lifting the lid to feed the snails, since the mommy snail lays them on the lid of the tank.

Gosh, I already threw the clutch into the garbage. Shall I dig it out, to give you a look-see?

Of course I shall!

Here’s the clutch with a dime, to give you a sense of perspective:

I have no idea when it happened, or how it came to be that I had a cache of apple snail eggs in my lingerie drawer. Sadly for the eggs, it wasn’t a good environment for their development, and they dried up to death.

But don’t worry! I’ve got a whole ‘nother clutch that’s well on its way to becoming baby snails! That one should hatch in the next week. In the meantime, I’d better find homes for the 150 baby snails I already have.

Have you met my baby snails? I’ll have to do a separate post just on the baby snails and their development. They’re that adorable.

If anyone out there is interested in adopting some baby apple snails, please, drop me a line. And for all the guys out there - applesnail eggs + lingerie = hot, no?

Yes. Hot hot hot! It sure got me thinking we should have a discussion about viviparous vs ovoviviparous vs oviparous animals. What do you say?

I’ll leave you with that. Various viparous ways of being and egg clutches and lingerie, o my!

apple snails, egg clutch, lingerie, ovipary

* If you are asking, “What is an apple snail?”, this is a great resource:
The Apple Snail Website

Here’s one of my babies: