Unfortunately, most studies assessing the tolerance of mollusks to non-aquatic media are conducted with animals directlyexposed to air, which may be an unrealistic situation. Substratamay preserve moisture for some time, therefore increasing thechances of survival during lateral dispersal. Moreover, most stud-ies have been conducted in laboratory, where the animals, afterair-exposure, are usually returned to the initial controlled aquaticmedia (i.e. stable water temperature, same physicochemical waterproperties previous to air exposure) (Paukstis et al., 1999; Suemotoet al., 2004; Alonso and Castro-Díez, 2012b; van Leeuwen and vander Velde, 2012).