365 Urban Species. #144: English Garden Snail

[urbpan]

Photos by cottonmanifesto

Urban species #144: English garden snail Cepaea nemoralis

Life began in the oceans. Only a few phyla have left the safety of the water to have some live on land--the arthropods, the chordates (that's us), several worm phyla, and perhaps most improbably, the mollusks. Mollusks are slime-secreting lumps of muscle that (in most cases) live in a shell of calcium carbonate. Most classes of mollusks still live in the water--bivalves such as clams and oysters, cephalopods like octopi and squids--but some gastropods, slugs and snails, have crawled their way to land.

Some species of gastropods have become urban animals, at least in damp cities. In Boston, New York, and other northern and eastern cities, the urban snail is the English garden snail. This common name is one I have given it, unsatisfied with the established monikers "grovesnail," and "brown-lipped snail." This snail, or more likely its eggs, probably found its way to North America on plants shipped from the UK. This herbivorous animal is considered a garden pest by some, but may charm others with its colorful shell. In fact, its highly variable shell colors and patterns are a matter for a considerable amount of scientific studies. Evolutionary biologists consider Cepaea's shell pattern diversity to be a good illustration of genetic drift.

The brown garden snail Helix aspersa of mainland Europe, was deliberately introduced to San Francisco, with the intention of raising it as a food animal. One suspects that this adventure can be added to the embarrassing American record of unsuccessful industries based on introduced species, such as silk, carp, and nutria.

Comments

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Excellent mollusk power!

[phlogiston-5.livejournal.com]

I remember when I was in Boston for a brief period I found dozens of those snail shells in the little garden outside my apartment. All different colors. I did a watercolor of them.

[mercureal.livejournal.com]

i have such an irrepressible affection for snails. and they are extraordinarily photogenic! they seem to perform for the camera.

and east coast snails are far prettier than californian.


even loving snails as i do, i do hope that giant african snails (http://www.wvagriculture.org/images/Plant%20Industries/Giant%20African%20Snail%201.jpg) never move in.

[cailin-t.livejournal.com]

KURT!!!!!!

:) i had a pet snail once. lol

[agelena.livejournal.com]

I now live in a heavily landscaped apartment complex, the first place I've ever lived where large snails roam the land. (Maybe "roam" isn't quite the right word.) I'm quite charmed by them. There's a big tree on the corner, halfway torn apart by a lightning strike or windstorm. I've seen the snails congregate in large numbers on the underside of the broken part. That's come to be known as the Snail Tree.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

Are there native snails too?

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

That is way too much snail.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Sure!
The North American land snails apparently consist of Family Polygyridae. More species seem to occur in the Pacific Northwest, but I found several mentions of Neohelix dentifera in the east, from Canada to the Carolinas.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I love them! (Probably good that they aren't here yet, though.)
When I was in Ecuador, I was lucky enough to see one of these. It was crawling across the forest floor at night--I didn't know at the time it was an aquatic snail. My guide contemplated eating it.

[bezigebij.livejournal.com]

Personally I would call it the Dutch Garden Snail, considering the number of these creatures in my garden. I think they're adorable, but also have no qualms about throwing the hungry critters to the neighbor's chickens. Seriously, they'd devour everything if I let them.

In the following post you can see one of these snails on my Rudbeckia last fall (the last picture): http://bezigebij.livejournal.com/49301.html

[artemii.livejournal.com]

well for what it's worth, i usually here gardeners here call it either "garden snail" or "striped garden snail".

were you reading my journal yet when i posted that study that found that contrary to garden folk wisdom, garden snails/slugs that were tempted with a tin of beer tended to actually sit on the side of the tin drinking the beer and end up tipsy? the study studied what kind of beer they preferred and found that Guinness was #1. someone commented that that should be their new slogan ;)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

"Striped garden snail" works fine (except for those that aren't striped), and just plain "garden snail" is okay for here--it's the only snail we get in gardens. It just gets confusing if you talk to people in other geographic regions. Their garden snail might be an entirely different species!

Snails have good taste in beer apparently! I've only heard that trapping method used on slugs.