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Sticker of Girdled snail
Bug card No. 1907 of 4,939

Girdled snail

Hygromia cinctella
Name means: “the white line around the edge of its shell, like a belt”
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The girdled snail is a small snail with a pointy, cone-shaped shell and a flat bottom. Around the edge of its shell runs a thin white line, like a belt. It came from the Mediterranean and is now spreading through gardens all over Europe.

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 around the Mediterranean, now in much of Europe and the United States, in gardens, hedges and waste ground
Length
1 to 1.2 cm (0.39 to 0.47 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.02 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?
Like most land snails, it nibbles plants and soft, rotting leaves.
For real!Photo of Girdled snail
Picture by Fvlamoen. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Girdled snail about 1.2 cm long (0.47 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2 grains of rice in a rowneeds 3 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Girdled snail compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Lots of girdled snails often gather together in big groups.

2

On damp nights it comes out onto paths and paving stones.

3

It does not mind the cold and can survive very cold winters in central Europe.

4

In Britain it was first found in Devon, and in 2008 it reached Scotland.

5

On the island of Sicily some are green, yellow or reddish.

you asked

Most asked questions about Girdled snail

?How big is the girdled snail?

Its shell is only about 1 centimetre wide.

?Where does the girdled snail live?

It came from the Mediterranean and now lives in gardens, hedges and waste ground across Europe.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Hygromia cinctella
Named by
Draparnaud, 1801
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Hygromiidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Hygromiidae
Lives on
Europe, North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Hygromia cinctella (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 Fvlamoen. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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