A METHOD FOR MARKING SMALL JUVENILE GASTROPODS

While marking and tagging methods have frequently been used to study a dult marine gastropods, such methods have seldom been applied to very small juveniles. This paper presents a simple method of individually m arking juvenile gastropods as small as 0.9 mm in length by applying na il polish colour codes to their shell. The method has no adverse effec ts on snail growth and survival, and marks persist in excess of 60 d. This marking method can be used to acquire valuable information on ear ly juvenile gastropods or other juvenile invertebrates, for which very little information is presently available.