Hawai'i Nature Squad
What makes those blobs in ponds?

Pouch snails lay eggs in jelly-like masses. If the eggs are removed from the water, they won't hatch.

Lizard Detective Andy Anole and his dragonfly partner, Detective Penny Pinao, crept slowly to the very edge of the pond. The Hawai'i Nature Squad detectives had been working for hours trying to solve their latest mystery. This assignment had them searching a shallow pond in downtown Honolulu to find some submerged leaves with strange, clear blobs.

"There, next to that submerged branch!" yelled Andy, pointing to a long line of jelly-like stuff dotted with black spots.

"No, the shape and color are wrong," said Penny, frowning. "Sasha Tomlinson's letter asked us to I.D. a small jelly-like blob with close to 50 white dots in it. What we've just found is a toad's egg mass."

"Eww," Andy said, frowning.

"Well, at least I've found the perfect watercraft," offered Penny. She was resting on the stem of a floating kamani-tree leaf. "Hop on Andy! I'll motor us out to that pile of soggy leaf litter."

Penny's wings beat furiously as she maneuvered their leaf boat across the water. The detectives scanned the pile of leaves floating just below the surface. "Andy, look at that orange and brown leaf! Jelly blob at three o'clock!" Penny called out excitedly. "Can you pull it up?"

Andy dipped his long, green tail into the water and poked it through the leaf's base. He pulled it up very slowly to keep the blob from shifting. He had almost managed to get the dripping leaf balanced onto his leaf boat when he heard . . .

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The lizard detective looked up to see his dragonfly partner being pulled backwards through the air She was stuck at the end of a hungry toad's tongue!

Penny reached into the Curiosity Kit strapped to her abdomen and grabbed what she hoped would keep her from becoming toad food. She pressed the switch and aimed a powerful beam of white light straight into the toad's eyes. When the toad hesitated, Penny quickly pried herself loose from the tongue's sticky tip.

"That was close!" exclaimed Penny as the toad galumphed away.

"Well, now that you're done fooling around, we can get back to work!" snapped Andy. He turned to begin hauling up the wet leaf.

"Stop!" sputtered a small voice. "Please don't hurt my babies!"

A small, yellowish-brown shell sat on the leaf next to the jelly blob with white dots. Two grayish-black eye stalks stuck out of the shell. "My name is Penelope Pouch Snail. That jelly blob, as you call it, is my egg mass. Each one of those white spots inside the gel is a baby snail. If you take the egg mass out of the water, they'll all die!"

"Oh! We're so sorry to have disturbed you, ma'am," said Andy as he scrambled to get her leaf back under water. "We were hoping to get a closer look at your egg mass to find out what it is. Thank you for filling us in. We won't bother you again."

Andy quickly untied their leaf boat's anchor rope from the branch and Penny revved up her wings. "Where to, partner?" asked Penny.

"Anywhere dry," sputtered Andy, shaking the water off his tail.

Write: Hawai'i Nature Squad, c/o Hawai'i Nature Center, 2131 Makiki Heights Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, or fax 955-0116. You may e-mail hawaiinaturecenter@hawaii.rr.com only if you're 13 or older. Hawai'i Nature Squad is written by Kim Welch, Kelly Perry and Ati Jeffers-Fabro of Hawai'i Nature Center.