Achatina Fulica

Achatina Fulica or Giant african snail is a terrestrial mollusc that originated from Africa. It may have been accidentally or deliberately spread throughout the world. This species is in the '''Top 100 Invasive Species List. '''It is illegal to export this species to America, and it is illegal to pet or collect these in the states. It lays 600 - 1000 eggs a year, which makes it hard to control it's ever growing population. Achatina Fulica are becoming more common in the Philippines due to accidental introductions. People try all kinds of method to stop them including salt, but always fail to control the population.

Habitat
The giant African snail is native to East Africa, and can be traced back to Kenya and Tanzania. It is a highly invasive species, and colonies can be formed from a single gravid individual. In many places, release into the wild is illegal.

Feeding
The giant African snail is a macrophytophagous herbivore; it eats a wide range of plant material, fruit, and vegetables. It will sometimes eat sand, very small stones, bones from carcasses and even concrete as calcium sources for its shell. In rare instances the snails will consume each other which is known as cannibalism.

Life cycle
This species is a simultaneous hermaphrodite; each individual has both testes and ovaries and is capable of producing both sperm and ova. Instances of self-fertilization are rare, occurring only in small populations. Although both snails in a mating pair can simultaneously transfer gametes to each other (bilateral mating), this is dependent on the size difference between the partners. Snails of similar size will reproduce in this way. Two snails of differing sizes will mate unilaterally (one way), with the larger individual acting as a female. This is due to the comparative resource investment associated with the different genders.[citation needed]

Like other land snails, these have intriguing mating behaviour, including petting their heads and front parts against each other. Courtship can last up to half an hour, and the actual transfer of gametes can last for two hours. Transferred sperm can be stored within the body for up to two years. The number of eggs per clutch averages around 200. A snail may lay five to six clutches per year with a hatching viability of about 90%.

Adult size is reached in about six months, after which growth slows, but does not ever cease. Life expectancy is commonly five or six years in captivity, but the snails may live for up to ten years. They are active at night and spend the day buried underground.