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Sticker of Cliveden snail
Bug card No. 0923 of 4,939

Cliveden snail

Papillifera papillaris
Name means: “the pimple carrier, after the little white bumps on its shell”
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsDeserts and dry placesNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The Cliveden snail is a tiny snail with a tall, thin shell, like a little tower. Its shell has small white bumps along the lines where it winds round. It loves old stone walls and has travelled to new countries hidden in blocks of stone.

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
First from Italy and Corsica, now all around the Mediterranean Sea and in southern England, on rocks and old stonework
Length
3.2 to 3.8 mm (0.13 to 0.15 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.01 km/h (0.01 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?
It probably scrapes tiny lichens off the stones it lives on.
For real!Photo of Cliveden snail
Picture by H. Zell. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Cliveden snail about 3.8 mm long (0.15 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailneeds 6 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Cliveden snail compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

In 2004 people found a small group of these snails living on an old stone railing in the gardens of Cliveden House in England. That is how it got its name.

2

The stone railing was brought from a park in Rome in 1896. The snails had come along with it and lived there for over 100 years before anyone noticed.

3

Its shell is about 12 to 15 millimetres tall and winds round 10 or 11 times. It also turns to the left, which most snail shells do not.

4

It belongs to the door snails, which have a tiny door inside the shell to close it.

5

In 2009 some of these snails travelled to Germany on blocks of Italian stone and survived a whole winter in a stonemason's yard.

you asked

Most asked questions about Cliveden snail

?Why is it called the Cliveden snail?

Because in England it was found living at a big old house called Cliveden, on a stone railing that came from Italy.

?How big is the Cliveden snail?

Tiny. Its shell is only about 3 to 4 millimetres wide and 12 to 15 millimetres tall.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Papillifera papillaris
Named by
Müller, 1774
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Clausiliidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Clausiliidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Papillifera papillaris (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 H. Zell. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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