White rabbits went
loping about the place, and occasionally came and sniffed at our shoes and shins; a fawn, with a red ribbon on its neck, walked up and examined us fearlessly; rare breeds of chickens and doves begged for crumbs, and a poor old tailless raven hopped about with a humble, shamefaced mein which said, "Please do not notice my exposure--think how you would feel in my circumstances, and be charitable." If he was observed too much, he would retire behind something and stay there until he judged the party's interest had found another object.
Notwithstanding a constant application of his one armed heel to the flanks of the mare, the most confirmed gait that he could establish was a Canterbury gallop with the hind legs, in which those more forward assisted for doubtful moments, though generally content to maintain a
loping trot.
Ellen, here, is a lively girl enough, but then she is no great race-rider; and it would be far more comfortable to boat six or eight hundred miles, than to go
loping along like so many elks measuring the prairies; besides, water leaves no trail."
Specifically, members of numerous species are capable of "loping" locomotion, a modification of adhesive crawling in which the head is periodically lifted well off the substrate, extended forward, and then returned to the substrate.
Loping locomotion was first described by Carlson (1905) in the terrestrial gastropod Helminthoglypta (as Helix) du-petithouarsi (DeShayes, 1840) (Carlson called it "galloping," but most recent authors now call it loping, the term we use here).
Our interest in these alternative locomotory gaits was sparked by numerous observations of loping in members of C.
The start point for all snails was the point at which they were put on the plate, except for lopers: there, the start point was when they started loping (which was always <10 cm from the point at which they were put on the plate).
As it moved, its gait was scored as adhesive crawling (no foot arches, continuous mucus trail) or loping (obvious arches, discontinous mucus trail).
Distribution of loping among terrestrial gastropods
aspersum, we observed locomotion on concrete by members of several other species of terrestrial pulmonates to determine if other species were also capable of loping. Specimens of the shelled snail Ac.
Scoring locomotory mode as adhesive crawling or loping was unambiguous, except for one snail that alternated between the two gaits while on concrete.
Tukey's post hoc multiple comparisons revealed that this effect was due to a difference in speeds on glass and concrete: snails moved more rapidly when using adhesive crawling on glass than when loping on concrete (P > 0.05).