REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF F ARCHACHATINA MARGINATA SNAILS 2 OBTAINED BY CROSSING FIRST FILIAL GENERATIONS OF HETEROZYGOUS AND HOMOZYGOUS BLACK-SKINNED SNAILS IN CALABAR, NIGERIA

Abstract

The reproductive performance of F snails (Archachatina marginata var. saturalis) obtained by crossing first 2 filial generation heterozygous snails and first filial generation homozygous snails was evaluated. 40 sexually matured F snails, 20 each of homozygous black and heterozygous black were crossed to generate the 1 F snails. The F snails were raised to sexually maturity and their reproductive performance monitored and 2 2 compared to that of their parents. The results shows a significant (p<0.05) difference in thereproductive parameters of the three mating groups from the terminal point of the juvenile phase up to the point of sexual maturity with exception of the mean hatchling shell 'mouth' length which was not significantly (p>0.05) different. The results confirmed an improvement on the reproductive performance of the F snails compared 2 to the parents crossbred snails in all the parameters under study with exception of percent (%) hatchability in which the F heterozygous snails performed better than the F homozygous and F snails. The result of this 1 1 2 study further established the possibility of improving the performance of snails to produce a hybrid snail that can meet the expectations of farmers through cross breeding.