I met this snail this morning. I am wondering why its trail is ‘dotted’? Was it hopping;-)

@johnjohnston It saw you coming and stopped hopping. They know that if we knew they hopped, they'd all be caught and kept as pets. So it is a survival behavior for them. You are lucky to see the proof of the hopping they do when we ain't looking!

@toddconaway @johnjohnston

a fantastic picture, can almost hear it ...
"Hey you, didn't I tell you wipe your foot before you came inside".
Seriously, it's wrecking my head to work it out.

@johnjohnston a high speed snail tearing along the dotted line :-)

@magsamond Well, I know they have antilock breaks. So it looks like this one was going pretty fast and had to quickly slow down when John came along. @johnjohnston

@toddconaway @johnjohnston
oh my word this is a whole sub-genre of biology I never heard of before, I love it.
It reminds me of the first time I ever saw seagulls dancing on grass to rise the earthworms - how did I never know?

@johnjohnston it’s probably wet only on a part of the wheel, so it leaves that kind of marks!

@johnjohnston Maybe it’s Morse code. There’s a K coming and it’s saying EEEEEEEEEK!

@johnjohnston iirc snails have a stumpy little foot under their body that they use to drag themselves along, so I guess the dots would be footprints

@CiaraNi @johnjohnston : Here's a longer discussion on snail locomotion, complete with pictures and videos.

https://kozielska-reid.eu/2021/05/15/did-you-know-that-snails-and-slugs-use-different-gaits-to-move-on-different-surfaces/

@johnjohnston Was it moving fast? Perhaps it decided to "tear along dotted line".

@johnjohnston It's a fashion statement, it wanted its trail to match its shell. 🐆

@pjf @CiaraNi @johnjohnston Fantastic. I did not know that snails could lope.

@johnjohnston it's actually really intersting and didn't know about that behavoir.

But snail essentially have 2 mode of travel, this one is a loping gait used on rough absorbant surfaces or if dehydrated to conserve fluids.

it's basically tipping toe for gasteropods

kozielska-reid.eu/2021/05/15/did-you-know-that-snails-and-slugs-use-different-gaits-to-move-on-different-surfaces/

@johnjohnston it was moving faster than the refresh rate of reality.

@johnjohnston yes, bridging to save water :3

https://troet.cafe/@b_age/112540500553541276

@johnjohnston morse code?

@drahardja @johnjohnston This is a beautiful description

@johnjohnston running out of ink

@johnjohnston No, it's the brake control.

@johnjohnston

That's where Jesus carried him

@johnjohnston @eclectech can you animate this snail skipping? Pretty please.

@johnjohnston we have snails that leave trails like that. Always wondered if they hopped happily. Good video in this thread.

@johnjohnston@social.ds106.us Maybe it's a jumping snail?

@johnjohnston @meljoann It’s building a snail highway.

@johnjohnston it's pretty obvious that it's just trying to indicate where to cut

So today’s #positivity is this thread about snails and hopping. An absolute delight of whimsy and fact that demonstrates when social media can be absolutely fantastic.

From: @johnjohnston
https://social.ds106.us/@johnjohnston/114665513635758197

@johnjohnston it's marking a line for tearing off later. A long dashed line is for cutting instead.

@johnjohnston The point at which it is bunched up is wetter than the spaces where it is stretched out. The heat is enough and humidity low enough that it's drying out the stretch zones before the bunch zones.

Or it's from Fantasia

@johnjohnston measure twice, cut once. when you go back to the same spot tomorrow, there will probably be a deep furrow.

@johnjohnston

"i am TRYING to learn Morse code but i gather this attempt was another fail"-- sad snail on the dotted trail

🤣

@johnjohnston

recommended thread, the comments are hilarious...

@dtl Hah! I will happily give it a go if @johnjohnston is happy for me to play with it!

@eclectech @johnjohnston 😃

@johnjohnston I think the snail is trying to use Morse Code 🐌

@johnjohnston

- - . (G)
- - - (O)
- - - (O)

Seems like something a snail would say 🤔🐌

@johnjohnston God: "that's when I carried it"

@johnjohnston @dtl Fab, thanks. Aww, Fireworks was the absolute boss of making reasonably sized gifs. I miss Macromedia.

@johnjohnston @dtl Oooh, progress. Struggled to capture "skipping" as a snail action, but might have BOINGING sorted.

@johnjohnston this has turned out to be the loveliest anti-doom thread, we need more of those. And Lopin' Snail might just your DJ name 🐌