Snail is a common name that is applied most often to land

snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name snail is also applied to
most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have a coiled shell that is large enough
for the animal to retract completely into. When the word snail is used in this most general sense, it
includes not just land snails but also thousands of species of sea snails and freshwater snails.
Occasionally a few other molluscs that are not actually gastropods, such as the Monoplacophora,
which superficially resemble small limpets, may also informally be referred to as "snails".
Snail-like animals that naturally lack a shell, or have only an internal shell, are mostly called slugs,
and land snails that have only a very small shell (that they cannot retract into) are often called semi-
slugs.

Contents
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1Overview

2Types of snails by habitat

3Slugs

4Human relevance

o 4.1In agriculture

o 4.2As food

o 4.3Famine food

o 4.4Cosmetic

o 4.5Cultural depictions

4.5.1Symbolism

4.5.2Divination and other religious uses

4.5.3Love darts and Cupid

4.5.4Metaphor

4.5.5In Indonesia mythology

o 4.6Textiles

5See also

6References
 7External links

Overview

Video of snails (most likely Natica chemnitzi and Cerithium stercusmuscaram) feeding on the sea floor in
the Gulf of California, Puerto Peasco, Mexico, 50 sec

Video of snail after rain, 31 sec

Snails that respire using a lung belong to the group Pulmonata, while those with gills form
a polyphyletic group; in other words, snails with gills form a number of taxonomic groups that are not
necessarily more closely related to each other than they are related to some other groups. Both
snails that have lungs and snails that have gills have diversified so widely over geological time that a
few species with gills can be found on land and numerous species with lungs can be found in
freshwater. Even a few marine species have lungs.
Snails can be found in a very wide range of environments, including ditches, deserts, and
the abyssal depths of the sea. Although land snails may be more familiar to laymen, marine snails
constitute the majority of snail species, and have much greater diversity and a greater biomass.
Numerous kinds of snail can also be found in fresh water.
Most snails have thousands of microscopic tooth-like structures located on a banded ribbon-like
tongue called a radula. The radula works like a file, ripping food into small pieces. Many snails
are herbivorous, eating plants or rasping algae from surfaces with their radulae, though a few land
species and many marine species are omnivores or predatory carnivores.
Several species of the genus Achatina and related genera are known as giant African land snails;
some grow to 15 in (38 cm) from snout to tail, and weigh 1 kg (2 lb).[1] The largest living species of
sea snail is Syrinx aruanus; its shell can measure up to 90 cm (35 in) in length, and the whole animal
with the shell can weigh up to 18 kg (40 lb).
Snail moving on a wet ground

The snail Lymnaea makes decisions by using only two types of neuron: one deciding whether the
snail is hungry, and the other deciding whether there is food in the vicinity.[2]
The largest known land gastropod is the African giant snail Achatina achatina, the largest recorded
specimen of which measured 39.3 centimetres (15.5 in) from snout to tail when fully extended, with a
shell length of 27.3 cm (10.7 in) in December 1978. It weighed exactly 900 g (2 lb). Named Gee
Geronimo, this snail was owned by Christopher Hudson (195579) of Hove, East Sussex, UK, and
was collected in Sierra Leone in June 1976.[3]

Types of snails by habitat

Main articles: Land snail, Freshwater snail, and Sea snail

Slugs
Main article: Slug
Gastropods that lack a conspicuous shell are commonly called slugs rather than snails. Some
species of slug have a red shell, some have only an internal vestige that serves mainly as a calcium
repository, and others have no shell at all. Other than that there is little morphological difference
between slugs and snails. There are however important differences in habitats and behavior.
A shell-less animal is much more maneuverable and compressible, so even quite large land slugs
can take advantage of habitats or retreats with very little space, retreats that would be inaccessible
to a similar-sized snail. Slugs squeeze themselves into confined spaces such as under loose bark on
trees or under stone slabs, logs or wooden boards lying on the ground. In such retreats they are in
less danger from either predators or desiccation, and often those also are suitable places for laying
their eggs.
Slugs as a group are far from monophyletic; biologically speaking "slug" is a term of convenience
with little taxonomic significance. The reduction or loss of the shell has evolved many times
independently within several very different lineages of gastropods. The various taxa of land and sea
gastropods with slug morphology occur within numerous higher taxonomic groups of shelled
species; such independent slug taxa are not in general closely related to one another.