Range: Originally from western Europe, introduced throughout most of the world

Habitat: Anywhere with enough moisture, food, and cover such as gardens, woodland edges, and even graveyards

Size: Just over an inch (2.5cm) long and tall across the shell

Diet: Mostly plant material including flowers and fruits as well as decaying organisms and even paper

Threats: Mammals, birds (especially ducks), reptiles, amphibians, and more

Lifespan: Three to five years in average, but over a decade possible

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing garden snails. Also known as the brown garden snail, this species' scientific name recently changed. It was originally described from specimens collected from Italy and had the scientific name Helix until 2015 when it was decided by an assembly to accept the change to the current name: Cornu. It's the only living member of its genus! The name change came about due to marked differences in reproductive organs of this species compared to Helix species, though it took a long time for scientists to settle on an appropriate name. The name Cornu was actually attributed to another member of this species just four years after its initial naming in 1774!

The specific name, aspersum, is in reference to this snail's spotted appearance, though I like to consider their stripes when looking for them. They come in colors ranging from brown to yellow and often sport long stripes along the "back" of the shell, like racing stripes on a car! They can also be identified by the upturned lip near their shell opening and their all-around wrinklyness. Garden snails have about five whorls, or spirals, as adults and measure just over an inch (2.5cm) in height and diameter. They're often described as "globular"!  

These invertebrates are believed to originate from western Europe but they've been introduced throughout most of the world including South Africa, Australia, north, central, and South America, and some oceanic islands. This snail is considered a pest in California where it was first introduced in the 1850s as a source of escargot, though it's worth noting it's not the only snail species eaten by humans. In California the garden snail is a citrus pest where individuals can number hundreds to thousands on a single tree. It's not, however, considered a pest throughout most of its range, including some of the places it's been introduced! Somehow, this species is not currently found in Florida, though it is sometimes found on plant shipments heading there. It's been eradicated at least twice from the state, and they're trying to keep it that way. Florida has enough invasives to deal with already.

Garden snails prefer habitats with moisture, food, and plenty of hiding places - some examples of these include woodland edges, sea cliffs, gardens, and graveyards. They're generally nocturnal but come out when it's raining which is when they're most liked to be spotted by humans. These invertebrates specifically need a source of calcium in their environment to promote shell growth, and this is often found in the plant material they eat. Brown garden snails are plant eaters but they also consume detritus and even their own siblings, but we'll come back around to that. Younger garden snails prefer fresh plants while adults eat both fresh and decaying material. While leafy material is part of their diet, these animals also eat flowers, fruits, and sometimes even paper! 

Besides humans, garden snails are eaten by mammals like shrews and boars, reptiles like turtles, amphibians like frogs and salamanders, birds like ducks and thrushes, and other invertebrates such as spiders and centipedes. Like other land snails, they have a hard shell for protection against these threats. This shell typically spirals to the right, which is known as dextral, but in one rare case a left spiraling individual, named Jeremy, was found, which issued a hunt for other sinistral snails of this species with whom they could mate. Snails have both male and female sexual organs. They're technically able to self fertilize but prefer to cross fertilize with another individual. While mating, they stab each other with "love darts'' and deliver sperm packets to one another. The whole process can take anywhere from four to twelve hours, and two weeks later both individuals lay eggs.

Garden snails dig nests into the soil with their foot - that's the squishy part they glide around on using self-produced mucus. Their egg chambers can be over two and a half inches (6cm) deep. Inside, a few dozen to over a hundred eggs are laid in a cluster and covered by that same, sticky mucus produced by glands on the parent's foot. The eggs are further covered with soil and even the adult's feces! The eggs remain in the soil from two to six weeks depending on the surrounding temperature, they then hatch asynchronously, or, not at the same time.

The first meal for many garden snail babies are the unhatched eggs of their siblings! They get over this oophagous phase pretty quickly, however, and move to fresh plant material instead. When it’s newly hatched, the baby's shell is unpigmented and translucent, but it quickly grows and gains color. It takes about two years for a garden snail to reach reproductive maturity, though temperature can also impact this. During the winter, they hibernate. Did you know snails do this?

These invertebrates are typically reproductive for at least two years after reaching maturity, so their lifespan averages three to five years, though captive individuals and some larger wild populations can live more than a decade!

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