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Sticker of Draparnaud's glass snail
Bug card No. 1419 of 4,939

Draparnaud's glass snail

Oxychilus draparnaudi
Eats: A bit of everythingSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

Draparnaud's glass snail has a shiny shell that you can almost see through, like yellow-brown glass. Its soft body is a very unusual dark blue-grey colour. It is a big snail for a glass snail, but still small.

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
Europe, and carried to places like Canada, Hawaii, Malaysia and Singapore
Length
1.4 cm (0.55 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.02 km/h (0.01 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?
It eats plants and also small animals and dead things it finds on the ground.
For real!Photo of Draparnaud's glass snail
Picture by Michal Maňas. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Draparnaud's glass snail about 1.4 cm long (0.55 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowneeds 3 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Draparnaud's glass 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 is glossy and golden, and a bit whiter underneath.

2

Its body is dark blue mixed with grey, which is rare for a snail.

3

It has travelled with people to countries all over the world.

you asked

Most asked questions about Draparnaud's glass snail

?How big is Draparnaud's glass snail?

Its shell is about 14 millimetres wide.

?Why is it called a glass snail?

Its shell is shiny and see-through, a bit like glass.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Oxychilus draparnaudi
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Oxychilidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Oxychilidae
Lives on
Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Dark-bodied glass snail

Where the facts come from

  1. Oxychilus draparnaudi (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 Michal Maňas. 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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