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Sticker of Vineyard snail
Bug card No. 4590 of 4,939

Vineyard snail

Cernuella virgata
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

This vineyard snail is a small land snail with a creamy white shell, often painted with brown bands. When the weather gets hot and dry, it climbs to the top of a plant or a fence and sits there to wait for better days.

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
Around the Mediterranean and in western Europe, and also in Australia
Length
0.8 to 2.5 cm (0.31 to 0.98 in)
the width of the shell
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?
It eats plants, and in some places it nibbles farm crops.
For real!Photo of Vineyard snail
Picture by katunchik. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Vineyard snail about 2.5 cm long (0.98 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 4 grains of rice in a rowneeds 2 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Vineyard snail compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It arrived in Australia around 1920. There people call it the common white snail.

2

Farmers do not like its climbing habit, because lots of snails sitting on the plants get harvested together with the crop.

3

Its eggs are tiny, only about 1.5 millimetres across.

4

Its shells have been found at an old Roman town in Morocco.

you asked

Most asked questions about Vineyard snail

?How big is Cernuella virgata?

Its shell is about 8 to 25 millimetres wide.

?Why do snails climb up fences in summer?

This snail climbs high and rests there to get through hot, dry weather.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Cernuella virgata
Named by
Da Costa, 1778
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Geomitridae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Geomitridae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Common white snail

Where the facts come from

  1. Cernuella virgata (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 katunchik. 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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