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Sticker of Eastern heath snail
Bug card No. 1482 of 4,939

Eastern heath snail

Xerolenta obvia
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The eastern heath snail has a flat, whitish shell with dark brown stripes that go round and round. It loves dry, sunny grassland. Where it lives, there are often huge numbers of them together.

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
Eastern Europe and the Balkans, spread to much of Europe, Turkey, Canada and the USA
Length
1.4 to 2 cm (0.55 to 0.79 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 touching it, like after touching any wild animal.
What does it eat?
It eats plants. In some countries people worry it could harm farm crops.
For real!Photo of Eastern heath snail
Picture by Gargominy O.. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Eastern heath snail about 2 cm long (0.79 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowneeds 3 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Eastern heath snail compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

In hot weather it climbs up tall plants and sticks itself there to rest.

2

It lays milky white eggs in the soil, from about 20 to 70 in one batch.

3

It can live high in the Swiss Alps, up to 2000 metres.

4

Some snails live only one year, others two or even three years.

you asked

Most asked questions about Eastern heath snail

?How big is the eastern heath snail?

Its shell is about 1.5 to 2 centimetres wide and only about 1 centimetre high.

?Where does the eastern heath snail live?

It comes from eastern Europe and the Balkans, and has spread across Europe and even to Canada and the USA.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Xerolenta obvia
Named by
Menke, 1828
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Geomitridae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Geomitridae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Xerolenta obvia (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 Gargominy O.. 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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