Take a look at the photograph. On the bottom left-hand side, is that a little green butterfly?
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Tag snail
Why are snails active when it rains?
Why are snails active when it rains?
Land snails are active when it rains.
They must keep their bodies moist to survive. The human body consists of 60% water, but the bodies of snails consist of about 80% water. If the weather is hot and dry, their bodies will shrivel up and they will die.
Their shells protect them from the weather. Summer is too hot and dry, and they could die in the heat so they stay inside their shells. Winter is too cold with too much rain on the ground so they hibernate or estivate in their shells. Land snails cannot breathe under water, so they don’t like flooded areas. Whenever they are in their shells, they seal the opening of their shells with mucus that dries, making it act like a plug or a door.
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How many teeth does a Garden Snail have?
How many teeth does a Garden Snail have?
The Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) is an air-breathing pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the Helicidae family of terrestrial (land) snails.
Its head extends to form a snout (proboscis). It has tentacles on its head. Its eyes are at the tip of two of the tentacles.
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Wrinkled Dune Snail
The Wrinkled Dune Snail (Xeroplexa intersecta previously Candidula intersecta) is an air-breathing pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the Geomitridae family of terrestrial (land) snails. It is an invertebrate, because it does not have a backbone. Its shell is its exo-skeleton (outside skeleton).
The Wrinkled Dune Snail is yellowish-beige with dark-brown and copper bands. The round, globular, coarse (not glossy) shell has a right-handed whorl, which is called a dextral shell. There are five whorls with a slightly raised central spire. Its shell aperture (opening) does not have a lip. The body is bluish-grey with long upper tentacles and short lower tentacles on ts head. Its head extends to form a snout (proboscis). Its eyes are at the tip of the tentacles.
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Grove Unbanded Snail – Yellow Form
The Grove Unbanded Snail – Yellow Form (Cepaea nemoralis) is an air-breathing pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the Helicidae family of terrestrial (land) snails. It is a variant of the Grove Snail, also known as the Brown-Lipped Snail. It is an invertebrate, because it does not have a backbone. Its shell is its exo-skeleton (outside skeleton).
The Grove Unbanded Snail – Yellow Form can be varied in its appearance. The surface of its shell is semi-glossy. The shell has a right-handed whorl, which is called a dextral shell. The colour of the Grove Snail’s shell can be reddish, brownish, yellow, or creamy-white, with or without bands. The Grove Unbanded Snail – Yellow Form has a light, creamy yellow shell. It does not have prominent dark-brown bands or stripes. It has a white lip, not a brown lip. Its head extends to form a snout (proboscis). It has tentacles on its head. Its eyes are at the tip of the tentacles.
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Granulated Moon Turban Snail
The Granulated Moon Turban Snail (Lunella granulata) is a marine (saltwater) gastropod mollusc in the Turbinidae family of sea snails.
The Granulated Moon Turban has a lumpy, rough, elongated, domed shell. Its shell has a series of small tubercles. It has a wide, circular mouth. It soft body is grey.
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Vineyard Snail
The Vineyard Snail (Cernuella virgata or Helicella virgata) is a pulmonate air-breathing gastropod mollusc in the Geomitridae family of terrestrial (land) hairy snails. It is also known as the Common White Snail.
The Vineyard Snail usually has a creamy-white shell with fine growth lines. It has a darker line and white line along the outside of its shell. However, its shell can be variable. It has whorls, and the last whorl is slightly rounded. It has a brown mouth with pink inside. It shell is faintly glossy. Its body is grey.
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Kentish Garden Snail
The Kentish Garden Snail (Monacha cantiana) is a pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the Hygromiidae family of terrestrial (land) hairy snails.
The Kentish Garden Snail has a creamy-white to dark shell, usually turning reddish near the mouth. Its mouth is white-lipped.
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Garden Snail
The Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) is an air-breathing pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the Helicidae family of terrestrial (land) snails. It is an invertebrate, because it does not have a backbone. Its shell is its exo-skeleton (outside skeleton).
The Garden Snail can be varied in colour, but its shell is mainly dark-brown, with stripes, flecks, or streaks in a lighter colour. The shell has a right-handed whorl, which is called a dextral shell.It has a brown lip. Its head extends to form a snout (proboscis). It has tentacles on its head. Its eyes are at the tip of the tentacles.
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Grove Unbanded Snail
The Grove Unbanded Snail (Cepaea nemoralis) is an air-breathing pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the Helicidae family of terrestrial (land) snails. It is also known as the Brown-Lipped Snail. It is an invertebrate, because it does not have a backbone. Its shell is its exo-skeleton (outside skeleton).
The Grove Snail can be varied in its appearance. The colour of its shell can be reddish, brownish, yellow, or creamy-white, with or without bands. The surface of its shell is semi-glossy. The shell has a right-handed whorl, which is called a dextral shell. The Grove Unbanded Snail’s shell is tan-brown and does not have prominent dark-brown bands or stripes. It has a white lip instead of a brown lip. Its head extends to form a snout (proboscis). It has tentacles on its head. Its eyes are at the tip of the tentacles.
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What is a group of snails called?
What is a group of snails called?
A group of snails is called an escargatoire of snails, a hood of snails, a route of snails, a rout of snails, or a walk of snails.
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What is an operculum?
What is an operculum?
Operculum means ‘little lid.’ What animal has a little lid?
A gastropod mollusc – a snail – has an operculum. It is like a trapdoor at the mouth of many sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in some land snails.
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Common Periwinkle
The Common Periwinkle (Littorina littorea) is a small marine (saltwater) gastropod mollusc in the Littorinidae family of whelks and sea snails.
The Common Periwinkle has a thick, dark, grey-brown shell, that is sometimes banded. The inside of the shell is chocolate brown. It has 6-7 whorls. It has gills that enable it to breathe underwater. It has a lid on its shell, called an operculum.
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Florida Horse Conch
The Florida Horse Conch (Triplofusus papillosus) is a large tropical marine (saltwater) gastropod mollusc in the Fasciolariidae family of sea spindle snails and tulip snails. It is not a true conch shell from the Strombidae family of sea snails.
The Florida Horse Conch is greyish-white or brownish with a light-brown or dark-brown periostracum, which is the thin coating on its shell. It has a long siphonal canal and up to 10 whorls around its shell. It can retract the soft part of its body entirely into its shell and close the operculum (lid). The soft part of its body is bright orange.
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European Pond Snail
The European Pond Snail (Radix peregra) is an air-breathing, freshwater mollusc in the Lymnaeidae family of pond snails. It is an aquatic pulmonate gastropod. It is an invertebrate because it does not have a backbone. Its shell is its exo-skeleton (outside skeleton).
The European Pond Snail has a brown shell that spirals clockwise. It has four whorls with fine grooves. The last whorl is next to the opening. Its tentacles are short, and the posterior end of its foot is round.
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Dog Whelk Sea Snail
The Dog Whelk Sea Snail (Nucella lapillus) is a marine (saltwater) mollusc gastropod in the Muricidae family of rock sea snails. It is also called the Atlantic Dogwinkle.
The Dog Whelk is usually whitish-grey, but it can be a variety of colours, such as orange, yellow, brown, black, or banded. It has a hard, external shell, called an exo-skeleton, that is smooth with a pointed spire. It has a short, straight siphon canal. The shell shape varies, depending upon the tidal waves, but it is usually rounded and spirally corded. Most of its body is made of whorls. The aperture (hole or lip) is quite wide.
The Dog Whelk, like other Sea Snails, has a single auricle (chamber) in its heart, and a single pair of gill slits for breathing.
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CREATURE FEATURE: True Glass Snail
The True Glass Snail (Aegopinella nitidula) is a small, air-breathing, land pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the Gastrodontidae family of glass snails. It is an invertebrate, because it does not have a backbone. Its shell is its exo-skeleton (outside skeleton).
The True Glass Snail has a spiral, heliciform shell that is flattened and disc-shaped with a low spire, like it is a bit squashed. The opening lacks a thick margin like other land snails have. Instead, its shell is thin and light. The shell is almost transparent, as if made of glass, but it usually has light-brown, amber, or dark-brown markings.
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Iberian Threeband Slug
The Iberian Threeband Slug (Ambigolimax valentianus) is a mollusc in the Limacidae family of air-breathing land slugs; a snail without a shell. It is a terrestrial (land) pulmonate (air-breathing) gastropod (one-footed) mollusc. It is also known as the Greenhouse Slug.
The Iberian Threeband Slug is usually pinkish with two faint narrow or broken bands down its body and mantle (shield on its back, behind its head) with a third midline band on the mantle. It has two pairs of retractable tentacles (feelers) on its head. One pair of tentacles is larger with eyespots on the tips. The lower, or smaller tentacles, provide the sense of smell.
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Anatomy of a Snail’s Head
What does a snail’s head look like?
A snail’s head has one or two pairs of retractable tentacles: upper tentacles and lower tentacles.
The pair of upper tentacles are long and stick into the air. At the tips of each tentacle is a rounded shape, which is the snail’s eye. They are called eye spots. It has two eyes. These tentacles can also smell and taste the air.
The upper tentacles are also called posterior tentacles or major tentacles.
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Cambodia Land Snail
The Cambodia Land Snail (Amphidromus atricallosus classiarius) is a tropical, air-breathing invertebrate gastropod mollusc in the Camaenidae family of arboreal (tree-living) pulmonate land snails. An invertebrate does not have a backbone and gastropod means stomach-footed.
The Cambodia Land Snail can be varied in colour, often quite colourful but a few species can be dark, with a smooth shell that can be thin and fragile or heavy and solid. Different species have different colours, and can have varied number of whorls, and the direction of the way its shell spirals. It can be dextral shell-coiling (right-handed) or sinistral shell-coiling (left-coiling). The photographed snail is sinistral with a heavy shell. It has 6-8 pale-coloured whorls. It has a large aperture. Its ‘foot’ (soft body) is brown.
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