Morphological Characterization of Archachatina marginata and Achatina fulica: Implications for Snail Farming in Nigeria

For this study, 400 mature black-skinned snails with five whorls were purchased from Offiong Market in Essien Udim Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Of these, 200 were each of the species A. marginata and A. fulica. The presence of five (5) whorls for each species was used to identify and select these snails into the A. marginata and A. fulica species, respectively. The study's findings for the morphological characteristics (body weight, body shell length, body shell width, mouth shell length and mouth shell width) of these two snail species showed that, for a given number of whorls, A. marginata's attributes were all larger and significantly higher (P<0.001) than those of A. fulica. With the exception of A. fulica species, which had positive, weak, and low morphometric correlation coefficients between mouth shell width and body weight, mouth shell width and body shell length, and mouth shell width and body shell width, respectively, all other components were positively, strongly and significantly (P < 0.001) correlated for the both snails. However, for the same A. fulica species of snails, the only positive, weak, and non-significant (P >0.05) morphometric correlation coefficient between mouth shell length and mouth shell width was found to be r = 0.140. Morphometric trait disparities are highly influenced by species type, snail age and size variations, number of whorls, and body weight ranges have high effects on morphometric trait disparities and morphometric correlation coefficient of estimation. Thus, the morphometric traits of A. marginata and A. fulica species of snails studied could be selected for quantitative differentiation and characterization snails for farming, domestication and breeding purposes. For farming purpose, A. marginata snails are highly recommended due to their heavy and larger morphological characteristics recorded from them in this study.