ARE ROADS BARRIERS TO DISPERSAL IN THE LAND SNAIL ARIANTA-ARBUSTORUM

For 2 sites, a paved road (8 m wide, low traffic density) and an unpaved track (3 m wide), the snails' movements were largely confined to roadside verges. The snails followed the vegetation belts; average displacements ranged from 1.5-4.9 m at different sites. Several snails covered large distances, the maximum recorded being 14 m. Despite these long-distance dispersers, only one of the recaptured snails crossed the paved road and 2 crossed the track, indicating that the road and, to a minor extent, the track acted as dispersal barriers. An overgrown path (0.3 m wide) did not influence the snails' movement. -from Authors