Food choice behaviour may promote habitat specificity in mixed populations of clonal and sexual Potamopyrgus antipodarum.

Genetic polymorphism along an environmental gradient may be maintained if disruptive selection on habitat-specific traits leads to a correlated response in traits that reduce gene flow between habitats. We studied a short-distance cline in a population of freshwater snails Potamopyrgus antipodarum in which sexual and clonal snails coexist. Sexuals and clones show a life history cline by depth: snails reproduce at a smaller size in shallower habitats. Clones are also structured genetically across habitats and seem not to mix, even though habitats are within the dispersal distance of the snails and the opportunity for gene flow via migration must be considerable. Because habitat preference may promote divergence in both clones and sexuals along the depth gradient, we investigated whether snails show habitat-specific food choice behaviour that could reduce migration. We tested the food choice behaviour of the snails by exposing them simultaneously to food from their home and adjacent habitats. Both juvenile and adult snails from the shallow shore bank and a mid-water macrophyte habitat preferentially grazed on the vegetation of their original habitats. We suggest that the observed genetic and life history cline may be maintained by food choice behaviour that may promote a partial barrier to gene flow between the habitats. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.