A long-term memory for food odors in the land snail, Achatina fulica.

Two groups of Achatina fulica were fed either cucumber or carrot for 86 days. When subsequently tested in a Y-maze olfactometer, each group oriented preferentially toward the odor of that food which it had previously eaten. Two separate measures showed that the memory for these odors lasted 120 days. This represents a new form of behavioral plasticity for gastropod molluscs and offers attractive advantages for the study of neuronal mechanisms in learning and memory.