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Sticker of Blinking snail
Bug card No. 0512 of 4,939

Blinking snail

Quantula striata
Eats: A bit of everythingSnails, slugs and wormsRainforests and junglesNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The blinking snail is a land snail with a brown shell that can glow in the dark. As it crawls along, it gives off little flashes of yellow-green light. Even its eggs and its babies glow.

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
South-east Asia and Fiji, in Singapore even on lawns and by paths
Length
1.6 to 2.7 cm (0.63 to 1.1 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, fruit and vegetables, and sometimes also nibbles on dead animals.
For real!Photo of Blinking snail
Picture by Gray, 1834. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Blinking snail about 2.7 cm long (1.1 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 Blinking 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 is the only land snail known to make its own light.

2

It flashes most while it is moving, only half as brightly while eating, and not at all when it rests.

3

Its glow is so dim that nobody noticed it until 1942.

4

Each flash lasts from half a second to about 6 seconds.

5

Its soft body can grow 5 to 6 centimetres long.

you asked

Most asked questions about Blinking snail

?Do snails really glow?

This one does. The blinking snail is the only land snail known to flash with light.

?What does the blinking snail eat?

Plants, fruit and vegetables, and sometimes dead animals.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Quantula striata
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Dyakiidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Dyakiidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Quantula striata (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 Gray, 1834. CC0, 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