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Sticker of Pinhead spot snail
Bug card No. 3343 of 4,939

Pinhead spot snail

Paralaoma servilis
Eats: Leftovers and dead thingsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The pinhead spot snail is a very, very small land snail. It is so tiny that scientists call it a micro snail. It breathes air, just like the big snails in your garden.

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
First from New Zealand, now in many countries around the world
Top speed
about 0.03 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?
Nobody has written much about its meals. Many tiny land snails like it nibble on old, rotting bits of leaves.
For real!Photo of Pinhead spot snail
Picture by Casey H. Richart. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It belongs to a family called the dot snails, because they are as small as a dot.

2

It first lived in New Zealand, but it has travelled far. Now it lives in places like Great Britain, France, Belgium, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

3

It has spread to so many places that scientists call it a globally invasive snail, one that has moved far from its first home.

you asked

Most asked questions about Pinhead spot snail

?Where does the pinhead spot snail come from?

Scientists think it first lived in New Zealand. Now it lives in many countries around the world.

?Is the pinhead spot snail dangerous?

No. It is a tiny, harmless snail.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Paralaoma servilis
Named by
Shuttleworth, 1852
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Punctidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Punctidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania, Europe, Africa

Where the facts come from

  1. Paralaoma servilis (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 Casey H. Richart. 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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