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Sticker of Common chrysalis-snail
Bug card No. 1012 of 4,939

Common chrysalis-snail

Lauria cylindracea
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The common chrysalis-snail is a teeny-tiny snail with a shiny, see-through brown shell. Its shell is oval and only 3 to 4 millimetres tall, even smaller than a grain of rice. When it crawls, it holds its shell up high, almost straight up.

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
Western Europe, such as Britain, Ireland and Portugal, and brought to Canada and New Zealand
Length
1.8 mm (0.07 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.01 km/h (0.01 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is so small you may need a magnifying glass to see it well.
What does it eat?
It scrapes up tiny bits of food with its rough tongue, like other little land snails.
For real!Photo of Common chrysalis-snail
Picture by H. Zell. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Common chrysalis-snail about 1.8 mm long (0.07 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
3 of them in a row are as long as one grain of riceneeds 6 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Common chrysalis-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 has 5 or 6 turns, and the last turn is the widest.

2

Grown-up snails have a white rim around the opening of the shell.

3

Its body is dark with lighter sides, and its feelers are very short.

4

People have carried it to British Columbia in Canada and to New Zealand.

you asked

Most asked questions about Common chrysalis-snail

?How big is the common chrysalis-snail?

Its shell is only 3 to 4 millimetres tall and less than 2 millimetres wide.

?Where does the common chrysalis-snail live?

In western Europe, for example Britain, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal, and in Ukraine.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Lauria cylindracea
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Lauriidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Lauriidae
Lives on
Europe, North America, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Lauria cylindracea (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 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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