Sampling the DNA of rare animal species should have minimal impacts on individual health. This can be accomplished through non-lethal/non-invasive sampling. Few of these methods have been developed for invertebrates, including the Mollusca, which are in global decline. Tissue clipping the foot is a common non-lethal method for gastropods. However, it causes permanent damage and is inappropriate for smaller snails. This study used Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) cards to sample DNA from snail mucus for species of different sizes and habitat types, and across evolutionarily distant lineages. In a survival assay, the death rate of individuals sampled with FTA cards (12.1%) was greater than in the controls (3.7%), but the difference was not significant. Of 224 individuals representing 27 snail species (17 Hawaiian native, ten non-native) sampled using both FTA cards and tissue clipping, 80.4% of FTA samples and 91.6% of tissue samples amplified for COI, a significant difference. COI sequencing success did not differ significantly between the two methods. For individuals that failed to produce a COI sequence, an attempt was made to sequence 16S. For 16S, amplification and sequencing rates did not differ significantly between FTA and tissue samples. Habitat type and shell size did not affect FTA sampling success. Phylogenetically basal taxa exhibited lower success rates, but this may have been because of difficulty in sampling operculate taxa, and not because of identity. These results indicate that the FTA sampling is a viable non-lethal alternative to tissue clipping and can be used for diverse gastropods.

采样稀有动物物种的 DNA 对个体健康的影响应该很小。这可以通过非致命/非侵入性采样来完成。这些方法很少是针对无脊椎动物开发的，包括软体动物，软体动物在全球范围内数量正在减少。组织夹住足部是腹足动物常见的非致命方法。然而，它会造成永久性损害，并且不适合较小的蜗牛。这项研究使用 Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) 卡从蜗牛粘液中对不同大小和栖息地类型以及进化上遥远的谱系的物种的 DNA 进行采样。在生存测定中，使用 FTA 卡采样的个体的死亡率 (12.1%) 高于对照组 (3.7%)，但差异并不显着。使用 FTA 卡和组织剪取技术对代表 27 种蜗牛（17 种夏威夷本土蜗牛，10 种非本土蜗牛）的 224 个体进行采样，其中 80.4% 的 FTA 样本和 91.6% 的组织样本经过 COI 扩增，存在显着差异。COI 测序成功率在两种方法之间没有显着差异。对于未能产生 COI 序列的个体，尝试对 16S 进行测序。对于 16S，FTA 和组织样本之间的扩增和测序率没有显着差异。栖息地类型和贝壳大小并不影响 FTA 采样的成功。系统发育基础类群表现出较低的成功率，但这可能是因为有盖类群采样困难，而不是因为身份。这些结果表明，FTA 采样是组织剪取的可行的非致命替代方案，可用于多种腹足动物。