Rangers from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation caught Powelliphanta augusta laying an egg. CREDIT: Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 New Zealand is no stranger to unique flora and fauna, and that includes the land snail Powelliphanta augusta. These rare hermaphroditic snails are only found in New Zealand and much of their lives has remained a mystery. But now, we know how they lay their eggs–and it’s through their necks.  In a video from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC), a small egg that looks a bit like a hen’s egg pops out of its neck. The footage was captured by DOC Ranger Lisa Flanagan, who has been looking after this population of snails for over 12 years.  “It’s remarkable that in all the time we’ve spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we’ve seen one lay an egg,” Flanagan said in a statement. “We caught the action when we were weighing the snail. We turned it over to be weighed and saw the egg just starting to emerge from the snail.” According to DOC Senior Science Advisor Kath Walker, the snail’s hard shell is helpful when retreating from predators and keeping dry, but presents some problems. Namely, how to transfer sperm from your mate into the shell and get any eggs out.  “Powelliphanta have solved this by having an opening (a genital pore) on the right side of their body just below their head so that the snail only needs to peek out of its shell to do the business,” said Walker. “It extends its penis out of this pore and into its mate’s pore, and its mate does the same, simultaneously exchanging sperm, which they can store until they each fertilise the sperm they’ve received to create eggs. Powelliphanta superba prouseorum is the largest Powelliphanta species. CREDIT: Kath Walker/DOC. Powelliphanta lay about five to 10 eggs each year, each about a half an inch long. Like most snails, Powelliphanta are hermaphrodites and have both male and female genitalia. Even with both sets of genitalia, they usually mate with another snail to cross fertilize their eggs. They are also carnivores that typically must live at a relatively low density for survival, so the team believes that having the ability to self-fertilize from time-to-time must help with the species’ survival. While very little was known about the snails when they were initially taken into captivity, the team is continually discovering new things about these molluscs.  “Powelliphanta augusta are slow growing and long lived, not being sexually mature until they are about 8 years old and then laying only around 5 big eggs annually, which can take more than a year to hatch,” explains Flanagans. “Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old – in this they’re polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.” The diversity of New Zealand’s Powelliphanta snails. CREDIT: Kath Walker/DOC. Since 2006, the DOC has been managing a captive population of the threatened snails in chilled containers in Hokitika on New Zealand’s South Island. They were initially spotted when mining company Solid Energy began to mine in their habitat on the Mount Augustus ridgeline. Since then, the captive management of Powelliphanta augusta snails has helped save these animals from extinction and enabled us to learn more about the lives of these incredible creatures. DOC has also established some new populations of the snail into the wild and have also reintroduced them into some new and rehabilitated monitored habitats. The DOC says that it will manage a captive population until there is confidence that the species can survive in the wild.