External morphology of the camera-like eye of the gastropod Helix pomatia Linnaeus, 1758 (Stylommatophora: Helicidae)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/2686-9519-2026-18-2-429-443Keywords:
Helix pomatia, external morphology, molluscs, eye tentacle, tentacular integument, eyeballAbstract
Gastropods are considered model animals for studying the functioning of the visual system. However, there are gaps in our knowledge of the visual system of gastropods themselves, including the external and internal morphology of the camera-like eyes. For the first time, the external morphology of the camera-like eye of the terrestrial pulmonate gastropod Helix pomatia was studied in detail using observation of intact animals, making preparations of isolated eye tentacles and eyes, and histological preparations of isolated eye tentacles, light and scanning electron microscopy, traditional morphometrics, and calculation of statistical indicators. It was shown that the morphological properties of the eye of H. pomatia are more, but not completely, typical of terrestrial pulmonate gastropods. Based on the studied morphological properties of the H. pomatia eye, its possible functions were identified. This article is the first article on the external morphology of the camera-like eye of a gastropod.
References
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