2003). The dependence of Euglandina on their lip extensions for mucus trail following is particularly striking given that other snails and slugs are able to follow trails of odors or mucus using their optic tentacles (Chase and Croll 1981; Cook 1985c). In the field, Euglandina are voracious predators that, except for a specific, possibly distasteful slug, are known to

eat almost any molluscan prey they encounter (Cook 1985b, 1989; Kinzie 1992; Gerlach 1999, 2001; Meyer and Cowie 2010; Davis-Berg 2011). In the laboratory, Euglandina easily distinguish mucus of prey snails from that Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of other Euglandina. Although mucus trails from other Euglandina are followed at approximately the same frequency as prey Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical snails (~90% of all trails encountered) adult Euglandina rarely attack other Euglandina. Similarly, prey snails that have been covered with Euglandina mucus are usually ignored after a brief inspection, while Euglandina that have been covered with Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical prey mucus are rapidly attacked by the

predator snails (Shaheen et al. 2005). Euglandina also show robust chemosensory learning. They will follow artificial trails of novel, nonvolatile chemicals after only one or two trials of eating a prey snail coated with the chemical, but they do not learn to follow the artificial trails if exposure to test compounds is not paired with feeding on a prey snail Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (Clifford et al. 2003). Not only are Euglandina able to learn to follow artificial trails associated with food they also learn to follow trails of novel chemicals that have been paired with exposure to a conspecific (Shaheen et al. 2005). These results show that, in the mucus sensing modality, Euglandina have a sophisticated associative learning ability in which both food and access to potential mates can Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical act as a reward to reinforce a voluntary behavior (following a trail of a novel compound). While previous work has demonstrated the centrality

of mucus sensing to Euglandina behavior, it is not known how neural processing of mucus stimuli is carried out in the central ganglia. In addition, while the presence of odorants has been shown to http://www.selleckchem.com/products/sotrastaurin-aeb071.html disrupt Dipeptidyl peptidase trail following (Clifford et al. 2003) very little is known about the role of olfactory sensing in driving the voluntary behavior of Euglandina. In this study, we sought to identify the neural pathways and processing that are important for mucus trail chemosensation in Euglandina and compare them to those involved in odor processing in a similarly sized, herbivorous land snail species, Cantareus aspersa. While there has been a report of trail following by Cantareus snails, trail following is not a prominent part of their behavioral repertoire.