Giant African Land Snails

Two studies were conducted to compare the nervous systems of two species of Giant African Land Snails (Archachatina marginata and Achatina achatina). In the first study, 20 snails (10 per species) were dissected to identify the locations of the ganglia, the nerve fibres and the various organs innervated such as gills, heart, kidney, stomach, etc. In the second study, the histology of the different ganglia and nerve fibres was carried out using 10 snails (5 per species). The results showed that the nervous systems of both A. marginata and A. achatina were similar. They were made up of five (5) paired ganglia namely cerebral, pleural, parietal, pedal and buccal ganglia and an unpaired visceral ganglion located in the anterior region. The ganglia were linked together longitudinally by connectives and laterally by commissures. Nerves originating from the cerebral ganglia innervated the eyes, the tentacles, statocysts, lips and the penis while the foot was innervated by nerves from the pedal ganglia.