Classification: | Kingdom: Animalia | Phylum: Mollusca | Class: Gastropoda | Superfamily: Dyakioidea | Family: Dyakiidae | Genus: Quantula |

Below may be its young snail.

This is the only species of land snail is known to glow in the dark. This interesting phenomenon as well as the story of its discovery was highlighted to me by Beng Tang in an email on 23 May 2020. The luminescence of the snail was discovered by Yata Haneda in Singapore in 1942 on the lawn of the Goodwood Park Hotel [1]. The recollection of the discovery was first published in 1946 [2]. More snails were collected in 1960 in Singapore by Yata Haneda and brought back to Japan for further study [1]. Subsequently, he published at least 2 more articles on this topic [3, 4].

Reference:

[1] Haneda Y. 'Luminescence acvitity of the land snail Quantula striata' in Deluca MA & McElroy WD (Eds). Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence: Basic Chemistry and Analytical Applications. New York: Academic Press 1981, pp. 257-265.

[2] Haneda Y. A Luminous Land Snail, Dyakia Striata found in Malaya (in Japanese) Seibutsu (Living Organisms) 1946;1(5-6):244-298.

[3] Haneda Y. Further studies on a luminous land snail Quantula Striata, in Malaya. Sci Rep Yokosuka City Museum 1963;8:1-9.

[4] Haneda Y. Flash patterns of the light on luminous land snail. Quantula Striata (Gray) from Singapore. Sci Rep Yokosuka City Museum 1979;26:31-33.

The article below reported a land snail being eaten by the black-faced conehead katydid, an insect classified under the same group as the grasshopper.

Reference:

Leong TM. Records of the black-faced conehead katydid, Peracca subulicerca (Karny, 1926) in Singapore, with an account of predation on a forest snail (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae: Agraeciini). Nature in Singapore 2011;4:85-90. | Read article |