Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD

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Start small, start now: Akaleha’—our forests’ living gems When you grow up in Micronesia, you can sometimes feel a bit small and overlooked compared to the rest of the world. After all, “Micro,” meaning “small,” is literally in

Lovely piece from @anngawel.bsky.social on akaleha' tree snails in Guam & the CNMI. Dr. Gawel visited Rota to hear from elders on how they collected & used akaleha'. And she helped me map living akaleha' & showed me an akaleha' site I didn't know! #JoyOfMolluscs
www.guampdn.com/lifestyle/st...

- obsessed with slugs as a kid
- learned in 8th grade that paid to play with slugs = "biology"
- research opportunities in undergrad & grad school for shelled snails, so I expanded my horizons to the shelly
- postdoc was ending & saw a job posting for snail conservation on a tropical Pacific Island

Nature on Instagram: "It’s a surprising showdown in slow motion: two slugs fiercely battling over food by swinging their mouthparts at each other in a slug-sized duel. Though often thought of as slow ... Learn about the fascinating world of slugs and their unique behavior, where they show a competitive side when resources are scarce. Explore how they use their radula and mouthparts to fight for food a...

Slug fight!!!!
#JoyOfMolluscs

www.instagram.com/reel/DRPkgRx...

As a gastroenterologist, I am Personally Offended
🐌

Cutie baby sea snails hanging out.
#marineplankton 🦑

A hermit crab inside an adult akaleha' tree snail shell.

A small hermit crab inside a subadult akaleha' tree snail shell.

A large hermit crab inside a seashell.

#HappyHalloween!
Did you know -
Hermit crabs use snail skeletons to cover their butts 😱
🐚 Hermit crabs don't build their shells
🐌 But snails do!
A snail's shell is its skeleton and grows as the snail grows. Hermit crabs use dead snails' shells protect their soft backsides. Creepy!
☠️ #JoyOfMolluscs

These 2 showed up on our doorstep just days after my birthday, when they were maybe 2 months old. Raising them is the unexpected birthday gift that keeps on giving 🖤🖤

Akaleha' shell purse.

Stick chart of the Marshall Islands.

Happy #MolluscMonday!
Snail shells in traditional Pacific arts:
🐚In the Marianas, Chamorro & Refaluwasch people used akaleha' tree snails to make beaded bags & jewelry
🌏Many Pacific cultures use seashells for islands in stick chart maps, combining art, science, & geography
#JoyOfMolluscs

Disagree. Jane Austen adult works. It refers to grown adults who still have a crush on Mr. Darcy

Clara Peeters clearly had excellent taste in still-life subject #JoyOfMolluscs 🐚

NPR has already done this story on horse racing

Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality

Biology Department

xkcd.com/3140/

I don't collect many seashells. My work focuses on the land snails. One of our local artists here on Rota makes some wonderful jewelry, collage, etc out of beach glass and shells

Snails hanging from the underside of vine leaves: slightly above and left of center, upper right quadrant of photo behind woody stem.

How many akaleha’ can you find in this photo? I see 2 ✌️
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 5/5

Juvenile snail crawling on the top of the leaf in the “1 o’clock” position of sapling.

Juvenile akaleha’ are a bit harder to find 🔍
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 4/5

Snail hanging from the underside of a leaf on the left end of the branch.

Let’s make it a little harder…
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 3/5

Snails on the underside of vine leaves: lower-most leaf on the right side of vine stem, third-highest leaf on the left side of vine stem.

Can you find both akaleha’?
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 2/5

Snail hanging from the underside of the right leaf of sapling.

Want an #SnailSunday challenge? 🤓 Try to find the snails in these photos!
Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta)

Answers in the alt text

This snail was much harder to find in the field than in the photo

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 1/5

Omphalotropis snail crawling on moss.

At first glance, Omphalotropis snails can also look like baby akaleha’, but Omphalotropis shells are pointier and have more whorls
#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 4/4

Two Elasmias shells as viewed under a microscope, on top of a mm ruler. The larger of the two shells is just over 2 mm in shell height. A small projection called an apertural tooth is visible in the shell opening.

Under a microscope, Elasmias look very different from baby akaleha’. Elasmias have transparent shells and “teeth” in the shell opening
🔬
But since I can’t collect baby akaleha’ to look at them under a scope (they’re endangered), this doesn’t help!

#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 3/4

Juvenile Partula lutaensis hanging from a palm frond, next to a mm ruler. The snail is about 5 mm in shell height.

Elasmias crawling on a leaf, next to a mm ruler. The snail is about 3 mm in shell height.

In the field, baby akaleha’ can look similar to Elasmias snails. The largest Elasmias are ~2 mm vs the baby akaleha’ are ~4 mm. Somehow, it’s even harder for me to tell them apart in photos - even with a ruler 📏

#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 2/4

Juvenile Partula lutaensis on the underside of a leaf, with one tentacle extended.

Sometimes, I confuse baby akaleha’ (Mariana Islands tree snails in Family Partulidae) with other, smaller species

Here’s what a baby akaleha’ looks like 👶🐌
#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 1/4

Tiny, disc-shaped snail, which has stuck itself to the underside of a leaf.

Liardetia sp., Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 🇲🇵

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs

Small snail hanging on a leaf.

Small snail held in a researcher’s fingers, with the shell opening facing the camera.

Elasmias cf. quadrasi, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs

Tan cocoon hanging from the underside of a limeberry branch.

Cocoon, Guam

#InverteFest

Speedy Omphalotropis land snail crawling along the inside of a plastic terrarium 🏎️

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌

Out in the CNMI here, where I currently am, the best answer I know of is the local Golden Huntsman, Olios sp. Relatively abundant among the spiders here, but undescribed regardless.

#InverteFest #spiders 🌏🧪

Large beetle crawling on tree flowers.

Line tree snail with a striped, pointed shell hanging from a narrow tree stem.

Very large great banded hornet resting on the underside of a breadfruit leaf.

A few more introduced spp on Guam that we'd rather not have in the Northern Mariana Islands

1️⃣ beetle eating flowers 🪲

2️⃣ lined tree snail 🐌
Beautiful, but they don't belong here

3️⃣ great banded hornet 🐝

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 3/3