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Sticker of Carthusian nun snail
Bug card No. 0812 of 4,939

Carthusian nun snail

Monacha cartusiana
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The Carthusian nun snail is a small land snail that breathes air. It comes from western Europe and the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. It once travelled by accident all the way to the United States.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect at all, it has no legs! But kids find it on every bug hunt, so it lives in Bug Wiki too.
Lives in
Western and southern Europe, Great Britain and Ukraine, and now also Delaware in the USA
Top speed
about 0.03 km/h (0.02 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Wash your hands after holding one, like after touching any wild animal.
What does it eat?
Like most land snails, it eats plants.
For real!Photo of Carthusian nun snail
Picture by Fritz Geller-Grimm. CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its eggs are only 1.8 millimetres across.

2

From 1981 to 1988 it was fully protected by law in the United Kingdom.

3

It was carried to Delaware in the United States by accident and now lives there.

you asked

Most asked questions about Carthusian nun snail

?Is the Carthusian nun snail dangerous?

No. It is a harmless little snail.

?Where does the Carthusian nun snail live?

In Europe, especially in the west and around the Mediterranean, and in one area of the United States.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Monacha cartusiana
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Hygromiidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Hygromiidae
Lives on
Europe, North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Monacha cartusiana (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Fritz Geller-Grimm. CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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