A laboratory experiment was conducted with the marine gastropod Littorina littorea from three different sites in Long Island Sound to test for inducible responses to the non‐native predatory crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus. Individuals of L. littorea did not exhibit decreased shell growth in response to increased predation risk, which differs from the response seen in other species of Littorina. However, snails did exhibit slower growth in response to reduced food availability, as seen in other gastropods. Surprisingly, snails from two sites exhibited differences between the crab‐exposed and reduced food‐availability treatments in how they remodeled the thickness of different microstructural layers of shell material in apical parts of the shell. Although individuals of L. littorea did not show the typical shell thickening response seen in other gastropods, they did show differences among populations in remodeling their shell. This underlies the importance of examining how the shell is constructed and remodeled in studies of inducible defenses in gastropods, as well as the importance of examining animals from multiple populations.

中文翻译：

---

腹足动物壳重塑的表型可塑性

对来自长岛海峡三个不同地点的海洋腹足动物 Littorina littorea 进行了一项实验室实验，以测试对非本地掠食性蟹 Hemigrapsus sanguineus 的诱导反应。L. littorea 个体没有表现出对捕食风险增加做出反应的外壳生长减少，这与在其他 Littorina 物种中看到的反应不同。然而，正如其他腹足类动物所见，蜗牛确实因食物供应减少而表现出较慢的生长。令人惊讶的是，来自两个地点的蜗牛在蟹壳暴露和减少食物可用性处理之间在它们如何重塑壳顶部的壳材料的不同微观结构层的厚度方面表现出差异。尽管 L 的个人。littorea 没有表现出在其他腹足类动物中看到的典型外壳增厚反应，它们确实在重塑外壳方面表现出种群之间的差异。这说明在腹足类动物的诱导防御研究中检查壳的构造和改造方式的重要性，以及检查来自多个种群的动物的重要性。