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Sticker of Giant land snail
Bug card No. 1870 of 4,939

Giant land snail

Acavus phoenix
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsRainforests and junglesNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The giant land snail is a big snail from Sri Lanka. Its shell is rosy pink, and its soft body is black. It lives only in the wet, rainy part of the island.

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
Only in Sri Lanka, in the wet zone
Length
6 cm (2.4 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.04 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?
Like other land snails, it scrapes up plants with its rough tongue.
For real!Photo of Giant land snail
Picture by Théalie Dhellemmes. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Giant land snail about 6 cm long (2.4 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 90 seconds

How big is Giant land 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 about 60 millimetres across, as wide as a big cookie.

2

It is the most common snail of its group in Sri Lanka.

3

It breathes air, like other land snails.

4

Scientists split it into two kinds, called subspecies.

you asked

Most asked questions about Giant land snail

?Where does the giant land snail live?

Only in Sri Lanka, in the wet, rainy part of the island.

?How big is the giant land snail?

Its shell is about 6 centimetres across.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Acavus phoenix
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Acavidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Acavidae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Acavus phoenix (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 Théalie Dhellemmes. CC BY-SA 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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Honey jarfor grown-ups