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Sticker of Bronze shoulderband snail
Bug card No. 0652 of 4,939

Bronze shoulderband snail

Helminthoglypta arrosa
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The bronze shoulderband snail is a land snail that lives only in California. It breathes air, just like we do. It carries its spiral shell house on its back wherever it goes.

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
Northern and central California
Top speed
about 0.03 km/h (0.02 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Wash your hands after holding a snail, like after touching any wild animal.
What does it eat?
Like other land snails, it eats plants, scraping them with its rough tongue.
For real!Photo of Bronze shoulderband snail
Picture by Ken-ichi Ueda. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It lives only in California and nowhere else in the world.

2

There are five slightly different forms of it in different parts of the state.

3

Shoulderband snails are named for the dark band that runs around the top of their shell.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bronze shoulderband snail

?Where does the bronze shoulderband snail live?

Only in northern and central California.

?Is the bronze shoulderband snail dangerous?

No. It is a harmless land snail.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Helminthoglypta arrosa
Named by
Binney, 1858
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Helminthoglyptidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Helminthoglyptidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Helminthoglypta arrosa (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 Ken-ichi Ueda. 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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