Like all other forms of immaculata the name Achatina immaculata var. “stuhlmanni” isn’t the official scientific name of these snails, and is only used to help differentiate between the different forms of this highly variable species.
This form is similar to var. “panthera,” but is clearly different, they may be a different locality of Achatina immaculata, since the original collecting data isn’t available it is impossible to know for sure though.
They were once misidentified as Achatina stuhlmanni, because of their elongated, mostly stripeless shell, that superficially resembles the true Achatina stuhlmanni.
In the very small number of captive bred snails of this form they appear to have very faint stripes, not nearly as noticeable as in panthera though.
The body colour is much lighter, nearly all plain white, they sometimes have a darker head, which seems specific to this particular form.
They are adult at around 7-12cm. Like all other Achatina immaculata their columella is either red, pink, or in the case of this form, purple.
They have proved much more difficult to breed in captivity than all the other forms, they are easier to keep than immaculata var. “two tone“, but are more difficult to keep healthy than var. “immaculata” and var. “panthera.” The eggs have proved much more difficult to hatch, many batches of eggs laid by this species has failed to hatch in captivity, and so this form is in danger of dying out in recorded captive collections.
It is advised to keep these snails separate from all other Achatina immaculata to keep this form as pure as possible. Keeping them warm at 26-30c and very humid is recommended, they don’t appear to be fussy and will accept lettuce, cucumber etc.. They can sometimes aestivate and retract for no apparent reason, even when the conditions seem ideal for them.
It is not known whether these snails will rasp at other species, like var. immaculata and var. panthera are known to, this may be because these snails are much rarer in captivity, and so the collective information on them is limited, it is advisable to keep them separate from all other species just in case.
