Two-lipped door snail
The two-lipped door snail is a small land snail that breathes air, just like you. Its shell has a secret: a tiny door inside it. When the snail pulls itself in, the door slides shut behind it.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The little door inside its shell is shaped like a spoon. It slides along folds inside the shell, like a door on rails.
A grown-up snail weighs only about 0.15 grams. Hundreds of them together would weigh as much as one apple.
In Great Britain it is rare. Most of them live along the River Thames, especially on a little river island called Isleworth Ait.
It belongs to a big family called door snails, and every snail in that family has the same kind of shell door.
Most asked questions about Two-lipped door snail
?Why is it called a door snail?
Because its shell has a small spoon-shaped door inside. It closes when the snail hides in its shell.
?Where does the two-lipped door snail live?
In several European countries. In England it lives mostly along the River Thames, and there is also a group at Purfleet in Essex.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Alinda biplicata
- Group
- Snails, slugs and worms
- Family
- Clausiliidae
- Classification
- Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Clausiliidae
- Lives on
- Europe
- Also known as
- Thames door snail
Where the facts come from
- Alinda biplicata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by H. Zell. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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