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Sticker of Graceful awlsnail
Bug card No. 1973 of 4,939

Graceful awlsnail

Allopeas gracile
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsRainforests and junglesNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The graceful awlsnail is a tiny land snail with a long, thin shell shaped like a pointy tower. The shell is so thin and shiny that you can almost see through it. Its soft body is pale yellow.

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
Warm places all around the world, first from India
Length
2.9 to 3.3 mm (0.11 to 0.13 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. Wash your hands after touching it, like after touching any wild animal.
What does it eat?
Like other land snails, it scrapes up its food with a rough little tongue.
For real!Photo of Graceful awlsnail
Picture by Heidi423. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Graceful awlsnail about 3.3 mm long (0.13 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailneeds 6 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Graceful awlsnail 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 1 centimetre long but only about 3 millimetres wide, like a tiny pointed tower.

2

It has four feelers. The top two are longer and have its eyes on the tips.

3

It has hitched rides to warm places all over the world, from Hawaii and Australia to Mexico and Tanzania.

4

In cold countries it sometimes lives in warm greenhouses.

you asked

Most asked questions about Graceful awlsnail

?How big is the graceful awlsnail?

Its shell is about 1 centimetre long and only about 3 millimetres wide.

?Where does the graceful awlsnail live?

In warm places all around the world. It first came from India.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Allopeas gracile
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Achatinidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Achatinidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania, North America, South America, Africa

Where the facts come from

  1. Allopeas gracile (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 Heidi423. 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