![]() ![]() Snails don’t like the sunlight, which is why you find them out more on cloudy days. Snails are nocturnal animals, which means most of their activities take place at night. However, they do not have ears or ear canal. Most land snails have two set of tentacles, the upper one carry the eyes, while the lower one has the olfactory organs. They mate with another snail, and then both lay eggs. However, they usually do not create offspring on their own. Snails have the reproductive organs of both, males and females, which categorize them as hermaphrodites. Snails are one of the slowest creatures on the Earth. While they don’t move fast, they do move at a very steady pace. Garden snails ( Helix apersa) reach a top speed of 50 yards per hour this is about 0.5 inches per second. Many people worry that the snails in their garden will ruin the foods grown there and make them unfit for consumption, but that is false. It is a myth that snail mucus can make humans ill. This mucus acts as a lubricant to reduce friction against the surface where they pass. When moving, snails leave behind a trail of mucus. Other species are tiny being only a few centimeters long when they are adults and just a couple of ounces in weight. The biggest land snail recorded was 12 inches long and weighed near 2 pounds. However, others in captivity can live up to 25 years old. Some of them only live for about five years. The life expectancy of snails depends on their habitat and the species. These processes are probably one of the reasons they have survived for millions of years. Sometimes snails also do a similar process in the summer, called estivation, to survive if it is a dry period. They cover their bodies with a thin layer of mucus, which prevents them from drying out. Some species of snails hibernate during the colder months of the year. Among these are the species Aaadonta constricta and Aaadonta fuscozonata, and others of the genus Aaadonta and Achatinella are in critical danger of extinction. – Many snails are in danger of extinction. – The size of the shell of a snail reflects its age. – A single garden snail ( Helix aspersa) can have up to 430 hatchlings after a year. – The food of land snails goes through a mouth structure called the radula, which has several rows of tiny teeth inside. Even humans who eat poorly cooked snails can become seriously ill. – Snails host several types of parasites that, while may not kill them, they are capable of affecting or killing their predators or animals that eat the snails. – Calcium carbonate is the main component of the snail shells. – Some predators of terrestrial snails are beetles, rats, mice, turtles, salamanders and some birds. – Snails do not change shells when they grow up.” Instead, the shell grows along with them. ![]() – Land snails cover the entrance of their shell with a dry mucus secretion called epiphragm, but a few do it with a structure, that in the aquatic snails, has the name of the operculum. If they moved without stopping, it would take more than a week to complete 1 kilometer. – The speed of snails is around 0.5-0.8 inches per second. – Most snail species are hermaphrodites, so they have both male and female reproductive organs. – The mucus of the garden snail is used to treat wrinkles, spots, and scars on the skin. – In some places, people eat snail eggs, and call them “white caviar.” – The courtship, process by which they attract each other before mating, lasts between 2 and 12 hours. – In France, edible snails are “escargot,” a word that also applies to a dish made with them, which is an appetizer. – Most snails live from 2 to 5 years, but in captivity, some have exceeded 10 or 15 years of age. – The snails that just hatch the egg can eat their shells and even other eggs of their brothers. – North America has about 500 native species of land snails. – Some land snails feed on other terrestrial snails.” – The largest land snail is the Achatina achatina, the Giant African Snail. – When they feel threatened, they usually retreat into their shell to protect themselves. – Snails are gastropod mollusks members of the phylum Mollusca and the class Gastropoda. ![]()
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