2025 was a year of progress & discoveries for akaleha' tree snail conservation here in the CNMI 🐌 Akaleha' are tree snails in Family Partulidae native to the Mariana Islands🇲🇵🇬🇺 To count down the new year, Here's our Top 10 Akaleha' Conservation Moments of 2025 #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs

🪱🪱🪱 vt.tiktok.com/ZSPtSaMC2/

I had the delight of meeting these (or a related species) and other very large snails while studying abroad in Ecuador back in 2013 Why are there giant land snails in the tropics (e.g. these Ecuadorian species, giant African snails), but giant slugs in temperate zones? #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌

Gotta love Lisa Frank squid babies Also gotta love creative uses of mucus #JoyOfMolluscs

🍄🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🌷 🍀🍀🍀🌷🍀🍀🍀🌷🍀 🍀🍀🌷🌷🍄🍀🌷🍀🌷 🍀🍀🍀🌺🍀🍀🌷🌷🌷 🌺🌺🍀🌷🍀🍀🍀🍀🌷 🌷🍀🍀🐌🍀🌺🍀🌺🍀 🍀🍀🍀🌺🍀🌷🍀🍀🍀

Lovely piece from @anngawel.bsky.social on akaleha' tree snails in Guam & the CNMI. Dr. Gawel visited Rota to hear from elders on how they collected & used akaleha'. And she helped me map living akaleha' & showed me an akaleha' site I didn't know! #JoyOfMolluscs www.guampdn.com/lifestyle/st...

- obsessed with slugs as a kid - learned in 8th grade that paid to play with slugs = "biology" - research opportunities in undergrad & grad school for shelled snails, so I expanded my horizons to the shelly - postdoc was ending & saw a job posting for snail conservation on a tropical Pacific Island

Slug fight!!!! #JoyOfMolluscs www.instagram.com/reel/DRPkgRx...

Cutie baby sea snails hanging out. #marineplankton 🦑

#HappyHalloween! Did you know - Hermit crabs use snail skeletons to cover their butts 😱 🐚 Hermit crabs don't build their shells 🐌 But snails do! A snail's shell is its skeleton and grows as the snail grows. Hermit crabs use dead snails' shells protect their soft backsides. Creepy! ☠️ #JoyOfMolluscs

These 2 showed up on our doorstep just days after my birthday, when they were maybe 2 months old. Raising them is the unexpected birthday gift that keeps on giving 🖤🖤

Happy #MolluscMonday! Snail shells in traditional Pacific arts: 🐚In the Marianas, Chamorro & Refaluwasch people used akaleha' tree snails to make beaded bags & jewelry 🌏Many Pacific cultures use seashells for islands in stick chart maps, combining art, science, & geography #JoyOfMolluscs

Clara Peeters clearly had excellent taste in still-life subject #JoyOfMolluscs 🐚

Biology Department xkcd.com/3140/

Want an #SnailSunday challenge? 🤓 Try to find the snails in these photos! Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta) Answers in the alt text This snail was much harder to find in the field than in the photo #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 1/5

Sometimes, I confuse baby akaleha’ (Mariana Islands tree snails in Family Partulidae) with other, smaller species Here’s what a baby akaleha’ looks like 👶🐌 #InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 1/4

Liardetia sp., Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 🇲🇵 #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs

Elasmias cf. quadrasi, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs

Cocoon, Guam #InverteFest

Speedy Omphalotropis land snail crawling along the inside of a plastic terrarium 🏎️ #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌

Out in the CNMI here, where I currently am, the best answer I know of is the local Golden Huntsman, Olios sp. Relatively abundant among the spiders here, but undescribed regardless. #InverteFest #spiders 🌏🧪

Some invasive inverts in the Mariana Islands 1️⃣ coconut rhinoceros beetle 🪲 These jerks are on Rota, but our invasive species team keeps them contained 🏅 2️⃣ succineid snails 🐌 We might have native ones, too, but this one was at my apt, so I think it's introduced #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 1/3

Want an #InverteFest challenge? 🤓 Try to find the snails in these photos! Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta) Answers in the alt text We’ll start off easy… #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 1/5

Samoana fragilis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha'), found on Rota Island in the Northern Mariana Islands and on Guam These snails have translucent shells, so color differences are from their flesh, not their shells #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌

Happy #MolluscMonday of #InverteFest! Please enjoy these Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta) These snails are only found on Rota Island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 🏝️ #JoyOfMolluscs #MolluskMonday 1/2

Clearly amazing appearance around 888m in #MarDelPlataCanyon: Amphitretus sp. This telescope octopus has adapted to live in a place where there is nowhere to hide but in plain sight. Deep gratitude to @autsquidsquad.bsky.social for species ID. Description on Insta: www.instagram.com/reel/DNittGh...

Incredible glass models of soft-bodied inverts 😍 vt.tiktok.com/ZSSTt9pFB/

How to recognize akaleha' on Rota vs other snails #JoyOfMolluscs Akaleha' 📏 adults ~1/2 inch long 🐚 flared "lip" around adult shell opening 🌴 in the jungle on plants 🌈 Partula lutaensis: many different colors 💛 Samoana fragilis: yellow & dark brown splotches 1/4

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."  -Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

Come see me wrestle with the philosophical conundrum of what we measure and why and how, plus some stuff about geometry that hopefully would bewilder the teacher who kicked me out of high school math!

Somewhere behind the scenes of the Oslo Natural History Museum is an exhibit designer with a lot of old taxidermy and a VISION.

Temporal Investigations: and how would you describe your experience being trapped on early 21st century Earth for your entire adult life? Me:

It’s been 5 years since a presumed extinct snail species was rediscovered. Now, after a successful ex-situ breeding program at Taronga Zoo, scientists are bringing their descendants back home. australian.museum/blog/amri-ne...

Some nice blue bugs to sooth your aching soul

What the heck are these blobs??? They're Cuban slug egg masses! Cuban slugs are invasive in the Mariana Islands - and many other places. They damage farms, gardens, and jungle habitats. If you find a slug egg mass, squish it to stop the next generation of slugs #MolluscMonday

💃Can you boogie like a Marianna walkingstick?🕺 (scientific name: Acanthograeffea denticulata) Mariana walkingsticks are found only in the Mariana Islands - and they're the only stick insects found here! These insects dance when they walk to mimic twigs in the wind🍃

Gastropod terrestrialization thread 🤩 #SnailSunday #JoyOfMolluscs

BIG BUG BIG BUG BIG BUG BIG BUG BIG BUG BIG BUG BIG BUG (huge violet ground beetle, Carabus scabrosus)

Redefining "harm" in the Endangered Species Act could undo decades of habitat protection for threatened species. The public has until May 19 to comment on the Trump Administration proposal to exclude habitat destruction from the definition. An ecologist and a law professor explain: buff.ly/Lguz0su

State fish & wildlife agencies get fed funding from USFW. Here in the territories, our fish & wildlife agencies are ENTIRELY dependent on fed funds. Cutting USFW will have immediate & devastating ripple effects on states & territories

Hungarian artist Agnes Herczeg creates intricate, figurative lace artworks #WomensArt

Hey #InverteFest, Can you help me ID this worm? #WormWednesday 🪱 It started showing up on Rota Island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands a few years ago. My best guess is the ribbon worm Geonemertes pelaensis 1/2

Thought I should post some not-moths for #InverteFest so... Have a snail!

Check out some of the introduced land snails of Rota Island, Northern Mariana Islands 🐌 Most of our introduced land snails are large - or very large! 1️⃣unidentified succineid 2️⃣cinnamon bun snail 3️⃣giant African snail (Chamorro name: deng deng) #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🧵/3

Check out some of the native land snail diversity of Rota Island, Northern Mariana Islands 🐌 Most of our native land snails are very small 1️⃣possibly Himeroconcha or Semperdon? 2️⃣Georissa laevigata 3️⃣Omphalotropis 4️⃣Lamprocystis #InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🧵/4

New relaxation exercise #InverteFest 🦑

It's the #MolluscMonday of #InverteFest! Here's what I do in a workweek as a Pacific Island land snail conservation biologist for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife, Rota Island office 🐌🏝️🤓 #JoyOfMolluscs #MolluskMonday 🧵/7

What's it like searching for endangered Pacific Island tree snails in the wild? Sometimes, they hang out right in front of your face. But usually, it’s a little harder than that… #InverteFest #SnailSunday #JoyOfMolluscs 🧵/4