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Sticker of Chilean black snail
Bug card No. 0874 of 4,939

Chilean black snail

Macrocyclis peruvianus
Eats: A bit of everythingSnails, slugs and wormsForests and woodsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The Chilean black snail is the biggest land snail in Chile. Its body is shiny black and its flat shell is reddish brown. It lives among the fallen leaves, ferns and moss of old forests.

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
Chile and nearby parts of Argentina, in native forests
Length
6 cm (2.4 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.04 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?
Scientists do not know everything it eats yet, but it eats several kinds of mushrooms and even other snails.
For real!Photo of Chilean black snail
Picture by nitsuga74. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Chilean black snail about 6 cm long (2.4 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 90 seconds

How big is Chilean black 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 can be up to 6 centimetres across.

2

It is the only living species in its whole genus.

3

It likes damp forests with lots of ferns, moss and rotting wood.

4

One of its main enemies is a land flatworm called Polycladus gayi.

you asked

Most asked questions about Chilean black snail

?What does the Chilean black snail eat?

Mushrooms and other snails, though scientists are still learning about its diet.

?How big is the Chilean black snail?

Its shell can be up to 6 centimetres wide, making it the biggest land snail in Chile.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Macrocyclis peruvianus
Named by
Lamarck, 1822
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Macrocyclidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Macrocyclidae
Lives on
South America

Where the facts come from

  1. Macrocyclis (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 nitsuga74. CC BY 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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