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Sticker of Zebra snail
Bug card No. 4936 of 4,939

Zebra snail

Zebrina detrita
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsDeserts and dry placesNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The zebra snail is a land snail with a tall, pointed shell, often with stripes, which is how it got its names. Its shell is about twice as tall as it is wide. Unlike many snails, it likes rather dry places.

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
Central and southern Europe, and also Israel, in fairly dry places
Length
1.2 cm (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 touching it, like after touching any wild animal.
What does it eat?
Like most land snails, it scrapes up plant food with its rough, toothy tongue.
For real!Photo of Zebra snail
Picture by Alfred Brehm. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Zebra 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 Zebra snail compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its shell is about 25 millimetres tall, as tall as a grape is long.

2

It is endangered in the Czech Republic and almost gone in the region of Moravia.

3

It has many names: striped wood snail, banded wood snail and even leopard snail.

you asked

Most asked questions about Zebra snail

?How big is the zebra snail?

Its shell is about 12 millimetres wide and 25 millimetres tall.

?Where does the zebra snail live?

In central and southern Europe and in Israel, in fairly dry places.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Zebrina detrita
Named by
O. F. Müller, 1774
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Enidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Enidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia
Also known as
Striped wood snail, Banded wood snail, Leopard snail

Where the facts come from

  1. Zebrina detrita (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 Alfred Brehm. Public domain, 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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