Research on shell collecting ants

Earlier this year I received a paper co-authored by Barna Páll-Gergely, a student at the Department of General and Applied Ecology of the University of Pécs, Hungary, who had been forwarded a copy of my Mollusc World article on this subject (see issue 15, November 2007). The paper, entitled “Ants as shell collectors: notes on land snail shells found around ant nests” (Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, 8: 14–18, 2009 – available online at http://mollusca.sav.sk) describes investigations of the shell collecting activities of harvester ants (Messor spp.) in semi-arid grasslands and shrubs in Turkey. Eight – mainly small-sized – snail species were found on ant nests, some of which might be taken into nests and the authors hypothesise that some of the snail species are consumed by ants. They also add that the shell collecting activities of harvester ants may assist malacologists to find snail species which are normally hidden (e.g. Cecilioides spp.) due to their special habits!