Notes on records of Trochulus hispidus (Gastropoda: Hygromiidae) feeding with an exotic Gymnosporangium sabinae (Basidiomycota: Pucciniaceae) in Latvia

Abstract

Feeding with the telia structures of an exotic fungus species Gymnosporangium sabinae (Dicks.) G. Winter (1884) (Basidiomycota: Pucciniaceae) by the native snail species, Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Gastropoda: Hygromiidae), was documented in spring of 2015 and 2016 in Latvia. In both years snails fed with G. sabinae in field conditions at a home garden at Dobele (Latvia). T. hispidus generally preferred initial structures of G. sabinae telia before these structures developed as orange gelatinous mass, when fungus lost its attraction as potential food for T. hispidus snails.