The word snail is a common name that can be used for almost all members of the molluscan class Gastropoda which have coiled shells in the adult stage. (Those snails which do not have a shell or only a very small shell are usually called slugs. Snails which have a broadly conical shell which is not coiled, or appears not to be coiled, are most often known as limpets.)

The class of Gastropoda (the snails and slugs) is second only to the insects in terms of total number of species. Snails are extraordinarily diverse in habitat, form, behavior, and anatomy, and therefore what is true of one snail species may not at all be true of another.

Snails can be found in a wide range of different environments from ditches to deserts to the abyssal depths of the sea. The great majority of snail species are marine. Many others are terrestrial, and numerous kinds can be found in fresh water, and even brackish water. Many snails are herbivorous, though a few land species and many marine species are omnivores or predatory carnivores.

Although the average person might perhaps be more familiar with terrestrial snails, land snails are in the minority. Marine snails have much greater diversity, and a greater biomass. Snails which respire using a lung belong to the group Pulmonata, while those with gills form a paraphyletic group, in other words, snails with gills are divided into a number of taxonomic groups that are not very closely related.

Snails with lungs and with gills have diversified widely enough over geological time that a few species with gills can be found on land, numerous species with a lung can be found in freshwater, and a few species with a lung can be found in the sea.

Although the word snail is often used for all shelled gastropods, the word "snail" can also be used in a much more limited sense, to mean various larger species of air-breathing (pulmonate) land snails. The majority of this article is about air-breathing land snails.

Land snails

Species of land snails live in almost every kind of habitat, from deserts and mountains to marshes, woodland, and gardens. However, certain species are "anthropophilic", which means they are found most often around human habitation.

Whichever reasonably large land snail species is most commonly seen or most commonly eaten in a given area, that species will usually be referred to simply as "snails" by the local people. In many parts of the world, the fairly large edible species Helix aspersa or Cornu aspersum, has been introduced, and has become a pest in farms and gardens, so this is perhaps a good example of a species commonly known as "the snail."

The African fruit snail, Achatina fulica is carnivorous. Its voracious diet includes all forms of fauna and fruit found in its native habitat deep in the jungle. The term fruit snail is somewhat misleading as a disconcerting side to its character is the fact it is also cannibalistic, eating slugs and other smaller snail species.

Slugs

Gastropod species which lack a conspicuous shell are commonly called slugs rather than snails, although, other than having a reduced shell or no shell at all, there are really no appreciable differences between a slug and a snail except in habitat and behavior. A shell-less animal is much more maneuverable, and thus even quite large land slugs can take advantage of habitats or retreats with very little space – places that would be totally inaccessible to a similar-sized snail, such as under loose bark on trees or under stone slabs, logs or wooden boards lying on the ground.

Taxonomic families of land slugs and sea slugs occur within numerous larger taxonomic groups of shelled species. In other words, the reduction or loss of the shell has evolved many times independently within several very different lineages of gastropods, thus the various families of slugs are very often not closely related to one another.

Biology (primarily but not exclusively of pulmonate land snails)

Physical characteristics

Underside of a snail climbing a blade of grass, showing the muscular foot and the pneumostome on the animal's right side

When retracted into their shells, many snails with gills (including many marine, some freshwater and some terrestrial species) are able to protect themselves with a door-like anatomical structure called an operculum. (The operculum of some sea snails has a pleasant scent when burned, so it is sometimes used as an ingredient in incense.)

Snails range greatly in size. The largest land snail is the Giant African Snail or Ghana Tiger Snail (Achatina achatina; Family Achatinidae), which can measure up to 30 cm. Pomacea maculata (Family Ampullariidae), or Giant Apple Snail is the largest freshwater snail, with a diameter of up to 15 cm and a mass of over 600 g. The biggest of all snails is Syrinx aruanus, an Australian marine species which can grow up to 77.2 cm (30 inches) in length^[3] and 18 kg (40lbs) in weight.^[4]

As the snail grows, so does its calcium carbonate shell. A snail's shell forms a logarithmic spiral. Most snail shells are right-handed, meaning that if you hold the shell with the apex (the tip, or the juvenile whorls) pointing towards you, then the spiral proceeds in a clockwise direction from the apex to the opening. When the animal reaches full adult size, many species of snails build a thickened lip around the opening of the shell. At this point the animal stops growing, and begins reproducing.

Sinistral (left handed) species of snail from western India

Most snails bear one or two pairs of tentacles on their heads. In most land snails the eyes are carried on the tips of the first (upper) set of tentacles (called ommatophores or more informally 'eye stalks') which are usually roughly 75% of the width of the eyes. The second (lower) set of tentacles act as olfactory organs. Both sets of tentacles are retractable in land snails. The eyes of most marine and freshwater snails are found at the base of the first set of tentacles.

Internal anatomy (land snails)

The anatomy of a common snail

The cerebral ganglia of the snail form a primitive brain divided into four sections. This structure is very much simpler than the brains of mammals, reptiles and birds, but nonetheless, snails are capable of associative learning.^[5]

Hibernation/Estivation (land snails)

Some snails hibernate during the winter (typically October through April in the Northern Hemisphere). They may also estivate in the summer in drought conditions. To stay moist during hibernation, a snail seals its shell opening with a dry layer of mucus called an epiphragm.

Some freshwater snails such as apple snails have gills and a "door" or operculum to close the shell when they withdraw. This structure functions as protection from predators as well as protecting the soft tissues from desiccation when an aquatic habitat dries out temporarily.

Reproduction (primarily land snails)

Two Helicid snails make contact prior to mating.

Two Cornu aspersa Garden snails mating

Prior to reproduction, most land snails perform a ritual courtship before mating. This may last anywhere between two and twelve hours. Prolific breeders, pulmonate land snails inseminate each other in pairs to internally fertilize their ova. Each brood may consist of up to 100 eggs.

Pulmonate land snails and slugs have a reproductive opening on one side of the body, near the front, through which the outer reproductive organs are extruded so that exchange of sperm can take place. After this, fertilization occurs and the eggs develop.

Garden snails bury their eggs in shallow topsoil primarily while the weather is warm and damp, usually 5 to 10 cm down, digging with their foot. Egg sizes differ between species, from a 3 mm diameter in the grove snail to a 6 cm diameter in the Giant African Land Snail. After 2 to 4 weeks of favorable weather, these eggs hatch and the young emerge. Snails may lay eggs as often as once a month.

The snail's shell develops while it is still an embryo; it is, however, very weak, and needs an immediate supply of calcium. Newly hatched snails obtain this by eating the egg from which they hatched. Baby snails cannibalizing other eggs, even unhatched ones, has been recorded. Promptly after they are finished ingesting their egg casings, they crawl upwards through the small tunnel remaining from when their parent dug their nest. At this stage, the young are almost completely transparent and colorless. Their shell is usually slightly smaller than the egg they hatched from, but their body length when out of their shell is slightly greater than the egg diameter. After a few weeks, the snails will begin to show their first tinge of color, usually slightly blue, before they turn their adult color. Roughly three months after they have hatched, they will look like miniature versions of their mature kin. They will continue to grow, usually for two to three years, until they reach adult size, although there have been confirmed recordings of snails growing amazingly fast - becoming even bigger than their parents in little more than a month. Irrespective of their rate of growth, however, it will still take at least 1 year before they are sexually mature.^[6]

The red circle shows the egg mass of a freshwater pulmonate snail. The egg mass is attached to a solid surface.

Freshwater species mating

There have been hybridizations of snails; although these do not occur commonly in the wild, in captivity they can be coaxed into doing so.

Parthenogenesis has also been noted in certain species.^[7][8]

Freshwater pond snails do not lay their eggs in the ground, but instead they attach them to something solid, or in some genera they carry the eggs internally until they hatch, a form of vivipary.

Lifespan

The lifespan of snails varies from species to species. In the wild, Achatinidae snails live around 5 to 7 years and Helix snails live about 2 to 3 years. Aquatic Apple Snails live only a year or so. Most deaths are due to predators or parasites. In captivity, their lifespan is much longer, ranging from 10 to 15 years for most species. On occasions, snails have lived beyond this lifespan, up to 30 years.^[9]

Diet

In the wild, snails eat a variety of different foods. Terrestrial snails are herbivorous. Their diet can include leaves, stems, soft bark, fruit and algae. Some species can cause damage to agricultural crops and garden plants, and are therefore often regarded as pests. Aquatic snails eat other varieties of food such as plankton, algae, plants, and other microscopic organisms that live underwater.

Predators

Land snails have many natural predators, including members of all major vertebrate groups, decollate snails, ground beetles, leeches, and even the predatory caterpillar Hyposmocoma molluscivora. The Botia family of freshwater fish also feed on freshwater snails by sucking them out of their shells.

In the pulmonate marsh snail, Succinea putris, there is a parasitic flatworm, Leucochloridium paradoxum, which prevents the snail from retracting its enlarged and parasitized eye stalk, which thus makes the snail much more likely to be eaten by a bird, its final host.

Humans also pose great dangers to snails in the wild. Pollution and the destruction of habitats has caused the extinction of a number of snail species in recent years.^[10][11]

Snails in cuisine

A snail farm in Provence

Europe

Snails are eaten in several European countries, as they were in the past in the Roman Empire. Mainly three species, all from the genus Helix, are ordinarily eaten:

• Helix pomatia, or edible snail, generally prepared in its shell, with parsley butter (size: 40 to 55 mm for an adult weight of 25 to 45 g.; typically found in Burgundy, France).
• Helix aspersa:
  • Helix aspersa aspersa also known as the European brown snail, is cooked in many different ways, according to different local traditions (size: 28 to 35 mm for an adult weight of 7 to 15 g.; typically found in the Mediterranean countries of Europe and North Africa and the French Atlantic coast).
  • Helix aspersa maxima (size 40 to 45 mm for an average weight of 20 to 30 g.; typically found in North Africa).

Snails are a delicacy in French cuisine, where they are called escargot. In an English-language menu, escargot is generally reserved for snails prepared with traditional French recipes (served in the shell with a garlic and parsley butter).

Snails are also popular in Portuguese cuisine (although not in the north of the country) where they are called in Portuguese caracóis, and served in cheap snack houses and taverns, usually stewed (with different mixtures of white wine, garlic, piri piri, oregano, coriander or parsley, and sometimes chouriço). Bigger varieties, called caracoletas, are generally grilled and served with a butter sauce, but other dishes also exist such as feijoada de caracóis. Overall, Portugal consumes about 4,000 tonnes of snails each year.^[16]

Cooked French Escargots

In Greece, snails are popular in the island of Crete, but are also eaten in other parts of the country and can even be found in supermarkets, sometimes placed alive near partly refrigerated vegetables. In this regard, snails are one of the few live organisms sold at supermarkets as food. They are eaten either boiled with vinegar added, or sometimes cooked alive in a casserole with tomato, potatoes and squashes. Another cooking method is the Kohli Bourbouristi (??????? ????(?)??????????)^[17] traditional Cretan dish, which consists of fried snails in olive oil with lemon.

In Sicily, snails (or babbaluci as they are commonly called in Sicilian) are a very popular dish as well. They are usually boiled with salt first, then served with tomato sauce or bare with oil, garlic and parsley. Snails are similarly appreciated in other Italian regions, such as Sardinia.

Heliciculture is the farming of snails. "They are protected in the wild almost everywhere (at least, the Roman Snail must not be collected any more), but the Roman Snail and the Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) especially are cultivated on snail farms."^[9]

Snails (or bebbux as they are called in Maltese) are a quite popular dish on the Mediterranean island of Malta.

Elsewhere

A dish of cooked freshwater nerites from the Rajang River, Sarawak, Malaysia

Various snail species are eaten in Asian cuisines as well.

Cultural depictions

Due to its slowness, the snail has traditionally been seen as a symbol of laziness. In Judeo-Christian culture, it has often been viewed as a manifestation of the deadly sin of sloth.^[18] Psalms implies that the slimy track of a snail is a sign that it will eventually wear itself away.^[19]

Snails were widely noted and used in divination.^[18] The Greek poet Hesiod wrote that snails signified the time to harvest by climbing the stalks, while the Aztec moon god Tecciztecatl bore a snail shell on his back. This symbolised rebirth; the snail's penchant appearing and disappearing was analogised with the moon.^[19] More recently, Carl Jung noted that the snail was representative of the self in dreams. In psychology, the soft insides are analogous to the subconscious, as the shell is the conscious.^[18]

In contemporary speech, the expression "a snail's pace" is often used to describe a slow, inefficient process.

The phrase "snail mail" is used to mean regular postal service delivery of paper messages as opposed to the delivery of E-mail or electronic mail, which is virtually instantaneous.

Gallery

<gallery> Image:Mochesnail.jpg|Moche Snails, 200 AD. Larco Museum Collection, Lima, Peru. Image:Snail2.JPG|Cornu aspersa, the Garden snail, in the USA Image:GardenSnail1.jpg|Cornu aspersa, the Garden snail, Hampshire, UK Image:European brown snail.jpg|C. aspersa, a brown Garden snail from Europe Image:Gardensnail.jpg|C. aspersa, Garden snail from England Image:Snail in pool with reflection.png|C. aspersa in a pool of water Image:Snail-WA edit02.jpg|White-lipped snail (Cepaea hortensis) Image:Snail WA.jpg|White-lipped snail (Cepaea hortensis) Image:Cepaea_nemoralis_pair_banded_shells.jpg|Two grove snails, Cepaea nemoralis Image:Snails mating 2996 05 02.jpg|Two grove snails, C. nemoralis, mating Image:Achatina fulica Thailand.jpg|Giant East African Snail (Achatina fulica) Image:Pouch-snail.JPG|Freshwater snail in the genus Physa, the pouch snail Image:Kadina-snails-climb-fence-0716.jpg|The introduced snail Theba pisana in Kadina, South Australia^[20] </gallery>

See also

• Slug
• Snail racing
• Pasilalinic-sympathetic compass

References

External links

• predatory snails on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site.

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