This Valentine's Day, mischievous Cupid will be fluttering about with bow in hand, seeking out mortal hearts to pierce with his love-tinged arrows. But the winged god isn't the only one known for this kind of behavior — oddly, land snails are also known to shoot "love darts." Land snails belong to the gastropod class, which includes thousands of snail and slug species that sport a wide range of reproductive behaviors. Mating for these species typically occurs in the wetter months, said Joris Koene, a biologist at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands whose research focuses on love darts. A Cornu aspersum snail that was hit in the head by a love-dart (arrow) so hard that the dart came out the other side of its head, next to the right eystalk. Credit: Monica Lodi & Joris M. Koene, Journal of Molluscan Studies (DOI: 10.1093/mollus/eyv046) View full size image During this ritual, the snails look for traits that they find appealing, such as a large body size...

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