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Sticker of Giant blonde snail
Bug card No. 1837 of 4,939

Giant blonde snail

Lissachatina immaculata
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsRainforests and junglesNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The giant blonde snail is a really big land snail from Africa. Its shell can grow longer than your hand. It breathes air just like we do, not water.

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
Southeastern Africa, and it has also spread to China, Singapore and South America
Length
12 to 15 cm (4.7 to 5.9 in)
the length of the shell
Top speed
about 0.07 km/h (0.04 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 its big cousins, it eats plants. Snails scrape their food with a rough tongue.
For real!Photo of Giant blonde snail
Picture by Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Giant blonde snail about 15 cm long (5.9 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)A house cat about 50 cm (20 in)
as long as 5 toy building bricks in a rowabout as long as your handcould run across a dinner table in 51 seconds

How big is Giant blonde 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 usually grows to 12 to 15 centimetres long.

2

It breathes air with a simple lung, so it is called an air-breathing snail.

3

People have carried it to places far from home, like Singapore, China, Suriname and French Guiana, where it does not belong.

you asked

Most asked questions about Giant blonde snail

?How big does the giant blonde snail get?

Its shell usually grows to 12 to 15 centimetres, longer than a grown-up's hand is wide.

?Where does the giant blonde snail come from?

From southeastern Africa. People have also brought it to Asia and South America.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Lissachatina immaculata
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Achatinidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Achatinidae
Lives on
Africa, Asia, South America

Where the facts come from

  1. Lissachatina immaculata (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 Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE. CC BY-SA 2.0, 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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Honey jarfor grown-ups