Talk:Snail/Archive 1

Snails in Cosmetics
This article contains no references to the use of snail slime as a cosmetic ingredient. I do not feel I know enough about the origins of the practice to write about it myself.

Andturn (talk) 21:06, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Shell vs. no shell
Should this phrase "Gastropod species which lack a conspicuous shell are commonly called slugs rather than snails, although, other than having a reduced shell or no shell at all, there are really no appreciable differences between a slug and a snail except in habitat and behavior."

say this "Gastropod species which develop with a lack a conspicuous shell are commonly called slugs rather than snails, although, other than having developed with a reduced shell or no shell at all, there are really no appreciable differences between a slug and a snail except in habitat and behavior.

--Cyberman (talk) 01:28, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Somebody has really messed this artical up...
"While most people are familiar with only terrestrial snails,blah the majority of snails are not terrestrial."==Edit needed== that shoud be removed

The "feelers" are properly called "tentacles." Pennak's textbook, "Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States" says that most snails live 9-15 months (some species do live longer, but this article insinuates that most do). This article says "As you can see" and then never shows a diagram of the internal anatomy, so you can NOT see. The article has numerous other errors. It would be interesting to have a section discussing snails as intermediate hosts of the various parasites they carry. I would like to see a professional malacologist heavily edit this article. --Angelbugsf 22:08, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

"Snails turn red in the moonlight and henry like to swim with monkeys in the air with a flower who like red and green."

That was in the article about 15 times, but I believe the user is banned. I undid the edits by his IP address.

Ipokesnails 12:43, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Eyes on stalks
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Snails/snail.html#characteristics

Eyes! Eyes on Stalks? I wanted to know what the stalks are officially called, then I somehow expected a link to all other animals with eyes on stalks. Unfortunately as I am not an expert on snail mechanisms I am not able to write the article. So if when looking at this comment, you reel back in total amazement at the utter obviousness of the answers to my snail-eye-stalk pondering... I challenge thee... get to it! Write and edit this snail article until it is full and fit and ripe with knowledge upon the same. My common guess is that that part is called their neck. That would fit humans descriptions of our neck so Hazaa... what now!?


 * Haha, holy crap, that's the same reason I visited this article, because I wanted to reference a snail winning a race "by a nose", but instead of using nose, wanted to use mandible or whatever the term would be. Clearly this information is in high demand! Sherurcij (talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject) 19:14, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

It would be useful to talk about reproduction and what they eat. -Pedro 00:16, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

That's funny - I also came here to see where their eyes are! (that makes three of us now).


 * Yes, funny. You must be the third person not to have noticed the edit button at the top of the screen. - User:Samsara (talk • contribs) 19:42, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey guys, I don't know of the scientific name for them, and I'm not even sure if there are any- but I know the common names. The things the eyes are on are called 'eyestalks' and the things below those are simply called 'feelers'. Hope that helps!

OK, made a start (they are tentacles and the retractable ones in landsnails are called ommatophores). If someone wants more detail to be added it might make sense to all so bulk up the articles on landsnails, and freshwater snails ? Big job I know - especially since they don't quite fit natural taxomic groups --Igor nz 03:09, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Snails as food
In Portugal, almost all food snails are from the Pseudotachea splendida species, which are quite small (about 1,5cm adults). Shouldn't that be in this section?

I am Spanish, gazpacho never takes meat.

"Black Forest Snail Chowder"? Who made that up? Baden's not the Black Forest. --KapHorn (talk) 09:23, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Anyone feel like a big edit?
I added a bunch of content here the other day. Someone more familiar than I should probably break this up into a generic snail-like description (probably more like what was here before) and split it off into terrestrial and aquatic snails, with aquatic being broken down into freshwater and marine snails. And figure out if I was even close with the taxonomy.

Can we have some info re LIFE EXPECTANCY and their relationship with SLUGS, i.e. do they get on?

Just added life expectancy info. Its incompete but its a start! --Thegreatloofa 18:23, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

Snail is also the name of the Ultimate Frisbee team for the State University of New York at Geneseo. That ain't relevant, ditch it >:\ Sherurcij (talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject) 19:14, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

And why all the badly translated nursery rhymes? 157.140.5.49

Anything that relates to snails is relevant. and the trivia of it being a team name is interesting.

what do they eat?
I just saw a few snails on the ground and wondered what their diet consisted of - naturally I went inside and expected to find the answer on Wikipedia, but it isn't here.

Can someone add a section on what they eat/how they sustain themselves?


 * Hi. I just came here as well to find out what they eat.  I saw on TV that they eat green leaves.  I was wondering if I should or should not have these in my garden.  Beneficial?  Who knows.  I know I don't know.  Thanks to anybody that can answer this question.  Do they eat the fruit of plants?

Hey guys, added a bit on diet in the article. hope that helps!


 * When I go snail-stomping I always see more snails feasting on the corpses an hour or so later. They seem to like my dog's poos.  Slugs eat snail corpses, and also eat dog poos.  I'd say snails are omnivores rather than vegetarians.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.200.166.68 (talk) 13:09, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Do their shells Grow?
So obviously snails grow because I read of one that was over 15 inches long, but I know they start out in small shells as babies so how does that work? Does their shell grow with them and if yes how so because it is hard unlike something soft that may stretch and grow with you.

64.71.70.81 14:10, 25 June 2006 (UTC)karla

Yes, they do grow as they mature. When fully sized, snails still require a supply of calcium to repair their shells should they get damaged.


 * The reason that snails' shells can grow and still be hard, is they grow at the lip. If you look at a baby snail and compare it to a fully-grown snail, you can see the bit of the large snail that it has had since it hatched: The tip of the spiral.  All the rest has been added later.  Some snails also have clear ridges in their shells that are similar to growth rings in trees, and show periods of fast and slow growth. --Slashme 06:49, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

anatomy?
A little anatomy here would be very useful. Slug has a decent start at it, but I would welcome much more. I don't know enough even to start -- for example, it appears that eyes are at the base of some species (Apple snails) and on top of the stalks in others? Fill us in! (By the way, the grapevinesnail image is spectacular.) bikeable (talk) 05:22, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Hey guys, added in a section on this.

Giant African Snail
"The largest land snail is the Giant African Snail (Achatina achatina; Family Achatinidae), ..."

The link to the Giant African Snail gives the species as Achatina fulica. Which is it - "fulica" or "achatina"?

Jangim 05:56, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Do snails sleep 3 years?
There's some email forward thing going around the Net that says snails sleep 3 years. I doubt it, and there's nothing here about that, so I further doubt it. Can someone conclusively put this one to rest? Atkinson 04:04, 24 January 2007 (UTC)


 * If by "sleep" you mean what humans do, no. However, snails can "hibernate" (not technically hibernation either) for long periods under adverse conditions (e.g. drought), protected behind their opercula.  This is just a quick answer, but anyone who has good technical knowledge of the matter can maybe add some info into the article. --Slashme 05:55, 24 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't have time to research it properly at the moment, but if you would like to know whether snails sleep at all, do a google scholar search for the terms "circadian" and "snail". It seems they definitely have a daily rhythm of activity and inactivity, but I didn't read any of the articles, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the concept myself. --Slashme 06:02, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

yes snail can sleep to 3 or more years —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.173.122.36 (talk) 09:04, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Psychology section deleted
I deleted a section on the "psychology of snails". It seems to consist of the observations of a hobbyist, influenced by an anthropomorphic viewpoint. I would be surprised if any of this has any validity, but if it can be supported by valid citations, feel free to replace it.--Slashme 07:13, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Care of snails
I removed a lot of the detail in the section on the care of pet snails. It's not really appropriate to a general article on snails. I am not an expert on snails, so this section should be checked out. It's clearly not aimed at professional terraria, and I'm not sure whether it's really general enough. --Slashme 08:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Re: Care of snails/Psychology section deleted
You are correct, you are obviously not an expert on snails; I think you will find the information extremely accurate, should you bother to do the proper research. As for the idea that it's not 'aimed at professional terreria', just because something isn't written in a super encyclopedic manner doesn't mean the content is inappropriate to the article. I will be reverting the text to how it was, and I suggest that you heavily research and raise snails for the next three years (as I have done) before removing stuff. I will be reinstating the previous version. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Crazy drunk hobo (talk • contribs) 04:12, 27 January 2007


 * A couple of points:
 * Please sign your posts on talk pages (but not on the article itself!), so we can remember who said what.
 * The section on snail psychology still looks highly speculative to me, and it looks like original research. Do you have any verifiable references to back your claims?  If you have, as you say, heavily researched snails, and have any peer-reviewed publications in this area yourself, they do not count as original research.
 * Note that Wikipedia is not a collection of instruction manuals. Your notes on the care and feeding of snails are quite comprehensive, but might be more appropriate at wikibooks.
 * I realize that you felt aggrieved by my removal of the content that you took much time and effort to prepare, but please don't take it personally. Wikipedia is a collaborative effort, and suggesting that I raise snails for three years before I can have a valid opinion on what is appropriate to this article is not very civil.


 * In the light of these points, I will take another look at the page, revert what I think needs reverting, and eagerly await your revised text. --Slashme 15:10, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Psychology
From the article:

Although widely regarded as stupid, primitive animals, there is evidence that snails have emotions


 * If you don't say what evidence, the claim that "there is evidence" is an example of weasel words.

most notably, the idea that they make friends.


 * This is a very remarkable statement that can only be in a general encyclopedia if there is evidence to back it up.

Such a scenario is more common if the involved parties were from the same nest.


 * From what is generally known about invertebrate behaviour, this is once again, highly speculative.

It is unknown how the snails bond and the time taken, but once they are 'friends' they will do almost everything together; they will eat together, they will sleep and estivate next to each other, and will travel together.


 * Once again, very strange, and in need of firm evidence. Also, is this in the wild or in captivity?

Snails and slugs, though potentially competitors for food, get along fairly well.


 * This does not include predatory species, I assume?

No negative effects are evident in either species


 * snails and slugs are not species, they are groups of related mollusc species.

even while living in the same cage for weeks at a time. Some slugs will go so far as to piggyback on a snail's shell.


 * Irrelevant to issues of "psychology".

Friendly behavior is attributed to being closely related and having extremely similar needs.


 * Attributed by whom? Usually this kind of situation breeds competition, not cooperation.

Please address these issues in your next edit. --Slashme 15:48, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Ok, issues noted. I'll answer a few of your questions here:

With the friends issue, I guarantee this is not a joke. I myself was surprised at finding this. What happened here was that snails would go around in pairs constantly, for months at a time. I am fairly sure that this is not courtship, as it only lasts a day maximum and involves the snails crawling all over each other and then breeding- something which did not happen. This indicates bonding, obviously. And yes, I did have snails from four different nests, and it was much more common for this bonding to occur between members of the same nest.

And these observations were taken with captive snails, thank you for questioning that. However, this does not disturb the point that snails are capable of making 'friends'.


 * This is original research, so let us know when it's published, and we can reconsider.--Slashme 06:05, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

With the bit about predatory species, I am assuming you are talking about carnivorous aquatic gastropods. My findings here are about land gastropods.


 * There are carnivorous land snails.--Slashme 06:05, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Alright, I assumed wrong. The majority of carniverous gastropods are aquatic, so I thought you were talking about this. Nevermind. I did not test carniverous species, as they are a minority when compared to herbivorous gastropods. --User:Crazy drunk hobo

Responding to your statement about piggybacking, I feel that this is relevant to psychology. If a gastropod recognizes another animal as an enemy, they will not typically go so far as to make contact with the animal. Because slugs do this, it can be concluded that they are friendly towards snails, something which is most definitely involved in psychology.


 * Friendly, or just indifferent. --Slashme 06:05, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, they're definately not hostile. And if the slugs were indifferent to the snails, I don't think they would crawl all over them quite as much. Rather, I think they would ignore them. --User:Crazy drunk hobo

On the last line there, you raise a valid point. It should be noted once again that these observations were taken in captivity. I am not saying that in nature, with restricted food, snails and slugs would not compete. I am saying that snails and slugs have the capability and potential to get along because they are closely related and share needs. Think about it: if you had, say, a lion and a zebra (or any other animal that a lion hunts) sharing an enclosure, it would be extremely hard to make them get along, as the lion might just eat the zebra. Snails and slugs, however, would clearly not eat each other. If that section was written in a misleading manner, I thank you for pointing it out. If you confirm it was, I'll rewrite it so it is not.


 * Maybe you should write something more along the lines of "Different herbivorous gastropods generally tolerate each other well in captivity". But be bold and hack away at the page, and we'll see what you come up with. Also, don't let me get you down, see what consensus you find from other authors.--Slashme 06:05, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

It's funny that you should mention publication of findings, I am planning on doing so fairly soon. I'll let you guys know when I have done so. --User:Crazy drunk hobo

Ok, so the thing I really need to do is publish my findings. Gotcha. I'll let you know when this is done, but it may take a while.

Ok, third opinion
Backed up with Wikipedia Policies....
 * Wikipedia is not... a publisher of original thought . Your original research is inapprpriate here. Once published it would be up to someone else besides yourself to bring it into the article.
 * Wikipedia is not... #4 instruction manual - that kind of non-encyclopedic information belongs in a sister project like Wikibooks or even Wiki Howto, you could even link to it from the External links section. It has to go from this article. Nashville Monkey 20:04, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Why Do Snails Like Beer?
I've seen several You Tube vids of snails gorging themselves on beer anyone know why they like it so much? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Evangelion883 (talk • contribs) 20:09, 30 January 2007


 * Because ethanol has a high calorific value, it is probably an attractive source of energy. Also, there are lots of volatile compounds in beer that originate from fermented plant matter, that would probably also attract snails, as they do not only feed off fresh plants, but also decomposing plants. --Slashme 11:06, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Hey guys, It should also be noted that although a few drops of beer, occasionally, can be ok for the snails, if they 'gorge' themselves on it, they'll die from alcohol poisoning (duh), so who is posting this on youtube? A practicer of animal cruelty? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Crazy drunk hobo (talk • contribs) 02:53, 3 February 2007

Close off a section
I see the article says that snails close off sections of their shells as they grow. I know the nautilus does this, but I haven't noticed this in the shells of garden snails. Comments? --Slashme 05:56, 1 February 2007 (UTC)


 * This may be a reference to the area around the gonad, but I'm not sure if this is really valid. I agree with Slashme, garden snails do not seal off sections of their shell, and most certainly not in the manner of the nautilus. Should this be removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Crazy drunk hobo (talk • contribs) 03:01, 3 February 2007

Love darts
It'd be worth a mention of these somewhere on this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 146.191.228.10 (talk) 15:06, 14 March 2007 (UTC).

Copper as a Snail Repellant
I found an interesting article about how you can use copper to repel snails and slugs from the plants in your garden. Copper as a Snail and Slug Repellant —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dancincutie1290 (talk • contribs)


 * I removed the link -- please don't add commercial links; see WP:EL. thanks.  bikeable (talk) 17:31, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Elsewhere section...
Does need expansion. Whoever attempts should note that sentence on "Achatina achatina" sounds like trivia; no relation to snails as food.--CheMechanical 19:28, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Animal size or class size?
I noticed just now that the article states 'The class Gastropoda (the snails and slugs) is the second largest class of invertebrate animals, second only to the insects.' Last I heard, the cephalopods (the largest being the giant squid) and the bivalves (the largest being the giant clam) are the two classes of invertebrate that have the largest specimens, either aquatic or terrestrial. Additionally, the article on largest organisms claims that the largest aquatic snails grow up to 16.4 kilograms and the largest terrestrial snails up to 1 kilogram. On the other hand, the largest insects max out at about 115 grams for goliath beetle larvae. Which leads me to guess that perhaps the person who added that line actually means that the class has the second-most species, rather than that they are the second-largest in terms of the mass of the largest specimens. I'm going to go edit it to be less ambiguous and keep only the second meaning, but I'm just giving a heads up here in case someone who's a better biologist than me can at some point verify whether either meaning is correct- and remove the line if it isn't. - green_meklar  01:29, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

snail gender roles
How do mating snails decide who will carry the eggs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Javeryshapiro (talk • contribs) 08:09, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

snails by aubree
the world of snails.you do the rest please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.210.145.23 (talk) 22:06, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

More about eyes?
The article on Eye states: ''Some of the simplest eyes, called ocelli, can be found in animals like snails, who cannot actually "see" in the normal sense. They do have photosensitive cells, but no lens and no other means of projecting an image onto these cells. They can distinguish between light and dark, but no more. This enables snails to keep out of direct sunlight.''

Does anyone know if this is true of all snails, just terrestial or marine ones, or what? Since most readers think of eyes as organs of vision, it would be interesting to know if
 * all snails can perceive between light and dark, and
 * no snails at all have image-forming eyes. Thanks, --Hordaland (talk) 06:26, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Alternate names in Sicilian
I know there are at least six ways to name similar animals. You should consider these are popular names and people used them to talk about food, it's not intended to be scientific, ok?

babbaluci -- terrestrial snails

vavalaggi -- sea snails

vaccareddi -- terrestrial snails

muccuni -- murex snails

crastuni -- garden snails or slugs

'ntuppateddi -- terrestrial snails enclosed within their epiphragm

I hope it can be helpful. And I would like this information being included in the article.

Ludovico Sambataro CT 1986 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.184.20.163 (talk) 22:51, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Picture of snail eggs
I've uploaded a picture of snail eggs on a leaf. I don't know the species of snail, but they're in a freshwater aquarium. I think the picture is clearer than the one in the article, but I didn't want to just replace it without anyone agreeing, or otherwise. So, should we keep the current one or replace it with the new one?--ML5 (talk) 19:48, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Removal of External link
I have just now removed the URL What Do Snails Eat? as it does not add anything unique to this article and falls outside WP:EL. WP is very clear about the limited use of URLs to enhance articles. Additionally the content of this site appears of little encyclopedic value and to be there to support a commercial activity.As such it would probably fail Spam anyway. As it stands it is not a particularly worthy URL anyway but that is beside the point. Contrary to what the editor claims, the WP article already contain the significant and salient facts in relation to snails. This is not to say it could not be improved but this should be done by adding this to the article not by pasting in random URLs of which the WWW is full of. Tmol42 (talk) 22:29, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

How do they hold onto their shells?
It was mentioned in the shell section of the article what they are made out of, but can someone explain how they are held onto the shell? The only purpose of the shell is protection from predators or does it serve any other purposesm, and why the typically circular shape? Thanks 12.20.14.2 (talk) 22:56, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Salt?
Shouldn't there be somewhere that mentions what happens when you salt a snail? I don't know if that's true for ALL snails but at least the land snails in North America... 75.172.186.108 (talk) 23:43, 2 September 2008 (UTC) Noaru

to sanil's love you have pet. i have some pet's sanil —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.102.6.7 (talk) 17:24, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Landsnails and water
What happens if they fall into water? Can they swim or do they just drown? Drutt (talk) 18:56, 5 October 2008 (UTC)
 * In the interest of science I have performed some experiments on this using common garden snails. Some float and some sink. I don't know the reason for this difference; it may be age-related. The floaters will die unless they bump into the edge of the water tank. The sinkers will immediately make for the surface when they hit the bottom, moving rapidly up the side of the container in a direct vertical path. On breaking the surface they will then pause for breath for several minutes. Danceswithzerglings (talk) 04:23, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Amusing
Someone's just added the link to the Polish article on snails:
 * Ślimaki.

The word seems almost too good to be true. :) --Hordaland (talk) 13:37, 12 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Why amusing? "Snails" is amusing. D_kuba 19:28, 6 February 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.59.241.9 (talk)
 * No offense! Just that snails (both with and without shells) are slimey, which is what that word looks like.  - Hordaland (talk) 20:45, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
 * In polish (language), word: "Slimey" means "Śliski". Maybe word "Ślimak" (singular of the word: "Ślimaki") derive from "Śliski". Polish language is very logical. What is second meaning of "Snails" in english?? D_kuba 22:31, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

twins
yes lasy night my dad stepped on a snail and squished it. This we got up and there was another right beside it in the same shape and form as the other one. The weird thing is the other was also squished in the same way. It was like it generated a twin by using the guts some how. When we went to bed there was not another one out there. I have been really curious about snails here lately and this happens. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.232.174.140 (talk) 18:47, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Same as slugs?
In the sub-header 'Slugs', the article indicates that "there are really no appreciable differences between a slug and a snail except in habitat and behavior". But the anatomical diagram later on shows snails having several major internal (or is that external) organs in their shell, ie. lung, reproductive organs, etc. I would consider that a fairly major difference, no? Is the anatomical diagram accurate? Seems surprising that this would leave sufficient room for the snail to retreat into the shell, although I appreciate that snails can vary in their ability to retreat completely.

Also, it is probably appropriate to indicate here in the article or elsewhere about how the shells are made, and how they grow along with the snail, etc. Can the snail detatch from the shell, or would that be curtains for him/her? I thought that one possible explanation for how their shells grow larger is if the snail could detatch it's shell, and then grow a larger one, (much like a snake skedding it's skin, or deer shedding its antlers annually). But other talk-strings seem to indicate the shell is added onto in ~spiral rings at the outside edge, much like a tree. Would be good to get clarity on this in the article if possible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Herleymt (talk • contribs) 22:35, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

The word "snail"? and candidate for edit protection?
Is this article about the word "snail" or about snails? Besides opening with such an ambiguous statement, the article is cluttered with equally ambiguous and vague language. It also appears to be a target for vandalism (I had to remove an ethnic slur from the section on reproduction). Judging by the comments on this discussion page, perhaps the article should be edited by registered users alone.

70.105.197.181 (talk) 20:20, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Species?
What species are snails? Reptiles? Amphibians? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.40.200.174 (talk) 01:24, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Snail are mollusks and hamefradites pardon my spelling but some one could explain it better Hamham410 (talk) 17:47, 4 May 2010 (UTC)hamham410Hamham410 (talk) 17:47, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

food: sea snails
The French, at least those near the coasts, eat large amounts of "fruits de mer", a huge part of these dishes are sea snails. The most popular are "bulots"and "vignots". English is not my native tongue, so can please someone else add these to the article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maggy Rond (talk • contribs) 12:47, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Edible Snails
Edible Snails are also known as Escargots. They are well as you already know edible. They are served as a appatizer in resteraunts and so on. They are really small when they are babies. But they can still get super super big... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Braybman (talk • contribs) 16:14, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Why have a sction about slugs on a snail page
i respect it but i dont thick it is needed but if no one objects i will remove it Hamham410 (talk) 16:37, 3 May 2010 (UTC)hamham410Hamham410 (talk) 16:37, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Hamham410 (talk • contribs) 16:34, 3 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Because snails and slugs are related species.&mdash;Tetracube (talk) 17:05, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

ok i vailu your coment i will not remove it tankyou Hamham410 (talk) 17:42, 4 May 2010 (UTC)hamham410Hamham410 (talk) 17:42, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Speed
Obviously the speed that snails move is a subject of interest, considering the idioms that have developed. How about some numbers?? —DIV (138.194.12.32 (talk) 08:16, 10 May 2010 (UTC))

Article has been defaced
How to sexually pleasure a snail or bite off its genitals? This article needs cleaned up, badly. --67.142.130.17 (talk) 23:54, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Sea snails (or saltwater snails)
There is no page on sea snails (meaning marine or saltwater snails). It redirects here, but this page doesn't talk about them. Under the "divided by habitat" section, there are links to more detailed pages for freshwater snails and land snails, which would give you the impression that saltwater snails don't exist! However, as the Wiki article for Gastropod states (with a cite), there are vastly more marine snail species than freshwater, so this seems like an oversight.

"Different estimations (from different sources) for aquatic gastropods give about 30,000 species[7] of marine gastropods and about 5,000 species of freshwater and brackish gastropods.[7] Total number of recent species of freshwater snails is about 4,000.[8]" from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastropod

Now, to be accurate, I must point out that gastropods are not all "snails", so this overstates my case. In all honesty, I do not claim to be an expert! I wish that someone who is an expert would add details on these snails, though.

For starters, many resources talk about Prosobranchia. As the Wiki page for Prosobranchia states, however, this is an out-of-date classification, and in any case includes animals other than sea snails. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosobranchia )  But, I'm linking to it because, as a non-expert, I know that Prosobranchia has a lot of marine snails, and I'm trying to demonstrate their existence in large enough numbers to warrant some sort of explanation on the Snails page! :-)

See also Opisthobranchia, which contains both animals that are marine snails, and animals that are not. (I really wish I were an expert on the subject--I'm trying to learn some basics here, but I'm really not qualified to edit the article right now!) Would anyone care to comment on why "Snails" gives the impression that there are only land and freshwater snails?

98.234.69.210 (talk) 03:07, 26 December 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree. The article was shortened to deal only with land snails with this edit on 1 December 2009. The Sea snail article was created on 22 July 2006 and reached its final form with this edit on 6 December 2009; it was then changed to a redirect to this article. It should clearly become an article again and be expanded to appropriate length. Not a field I know anything about, so I can't do it myself; I have the article watchlisted because it is a vandal target. Yngvadottir (talk) 03:55, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Sloth
The de Vries book mentions neither Judeo-Christian nor Christian, merely stating as first in the list of things symbolised by snails: "laziness; attribute of Sloth; in the M[iddle] A[ges] a symbol for 'sinner', because all sins are connected with Idleness". The additional reference covers the "Christian" to give the context of the "seven deadly sins", and it seems to me that that's advisable. But the sources do not support Judeo-Christian. Yngvadottir (talk) 04:38, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Paraphyletic? Polyphyletic?
In the Overview section the use of the term "paraphyletic" sounds to me as though the intended meaning is "polyphyletic". Would some competent malacologist please have a look and pronounce on the idea? Thanks if so, and feel welcome to edit without referring to me. JonRichfield (talk) 21:59, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Point now corrected. Invertzoo (talk) 13:56, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

Intelligence
How intelligent are they? they are gastropods, which contains some pretty smart creatures, the squids and octopi, some of whom are not much larger than a snail. they must hunt to survive, unlike clams, etc. has anyone done intelligence tests on them? i know we think of them as slow, but thats not the same as stupid.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 04:09, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Ummm... Well, for one thing there is a bit of no doubt inadvertent confusion in your remark; as phrased it seems to refer to Gastropoda (the class) in terms appropriate to Mollusca (the phylum). The smart ones are the class Cephalopoda, right? Gastropoda range from some very rudimentary intelligences with brains so simple that you can pretty well count the neurons, to some brighter types, but nothing as intellectual as a cuttlefish or octopus. I cannot clearly remember having read of IQ tests on snails, but if I had to put money on it, I would bet on say, whelks and predatory snails having much higher IQs than say garden snails. And FWIW, I would bet that clams (class Bivalvia) are on average dimmer than snails, even though some of them are quicker (as you say, speed need not necessarily imply intelligence). My ha'porth... JonRichfield (talk) 07:31, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Behavior
Nowhere on wikipedia have I been able to find information on the behavior of freshwater snails. That NONE of the snail articles should have a section on behavior is wack. I feel like is should be a pretty lengthy section. 78.191.44.148 (talk) 03:42, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

This Article Still Needs Expert Help!
Please help this article get up to WP standards.

I'm a bit frustrated reading this page. There is precious little useful information about snails in general, e.g., anatomy, reproduction, behavior, etc. And the links at the top of the page do not include a link to Land snails although there are links to articles on Slugs and Sea snails. Later, a link to the main article on Land snails shows up in the section Types of snails by habitat, but that link does not go to a section on habitat. There is an entire separate article on Reproductive system of gastropods, but it is not easily found. This sort of inconsistency causes confusion.

I know nothing about gastropods so I am not qualified to write anything factual about these creatures. But I keep wondering why the coverage is so weak, why it fails to link to more useful pages in a consistent way, and perhaps why it isn't merged into Gastropoda.

I see that there is an entire project devoted to Gastropods and that there were prior efforts at cleaning up this article, which makes me reluctant to make any additional editorial changes, even though they are much needed.

DDugan (talk) 17:45, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

lack of refrences
there is a lack of refrences on this site probobly because THE THING IS PROTECTED!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nevets02 (talk • contribs) 20:14, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Lifespan
This doesn't seem correct to me. "Aquatic Apple Snails live only a year or so. However they usually don't die, but respawn at another random place on the world."

you obviously have no sense of humor, or you are one of the stupid people that don't play minecraft. -nevets02 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nevets02 (talk • contribs) 20:16, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Video showing mating snails with love darts
Video showing mating snails with love darts in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCyD5fKbsgk

94.111.3.129 (talk) 01:25, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Not done: please make your request in a "change X to Y" format.

Why is gastropoda being referred to as a "species"?
In the section under agriculture it refers to the gastropods as a species. Would fix, but article semi-protected. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.232.246.7 (talk) 02:29, 14 April 2014 (UTC)
 * That's not how I read it, but I simplified from "other species of gastropods" to "other gastropods" for clarity; was that the passage? Yngvadottir (talk) 04:21, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 April 2017
Add pp-semi template.

--200.89.248.75 (talk) 17:50, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done  JTP (talk • contribs) 23:56, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Please explain reason for removing well sourced material and replacing it with unsourced information.
-- Please explain your unexplained reversion of my edit here. As I explained in my edit summary here, 's edit removed a very reliably sourced (BBC Science News) material and asserted totally unsourced information. You need to provide (1) a reliable source for the claim that "Many snails have sinister coiling" and (2) a supportable reason for removing the information sourced to the BBC article. This is Wikipedia Policy, not my opinion. Lacking these the article must be returned to the state it was in before your revert. Koala Tea Of Mercy ( KTOM's Articulations &amp; Invigilations ) 06:10, 26 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Occasional left handed snails are found amongst a generally right handed species and are quite common. Why the BBC chose to report this one is unclear, but the occurrence is neither particularly unusual nor encyclopaedic. This is especially so since there are some well known, and very common, left handed species. The addition was written to the article as if this direction of coiling was a rare and an especially notable event. It is neither.  Velella  Velella Talk 08:43, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I agree with user:Velella. Your addition wasn't wrong but it is not needed. The chirality of the snail shell has been explained in the article Gastropod shell. We don't need to give a particular example in a general article, unless it is very exceptional. You can read an abstract about chirality in the article The convoluted evolution of snail chirality by Schilthuizen M, Davison A. . JoJan (talk) 09:37, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
 * First, it was 's addition, not mine. My only contribution was to restore their edit and correct the capitalization errors.
 * Second, Wikipedia's standard is verifiability using reliable sources as defined in WP:V and WP:RS. Summarily removing another editor's sourced work without sourced justification or explanation is not the Wikipedia way. Velella at least explained their edit even though they offered no evidence.
 * Third, since you apparently have a reliable source that refutes the BBC article, please incorporate that source into the article with a brief section on snail chirality so that future readers of the encyclopedia will have the facts at their disposal. That is why we are here. Koala Tea Of Mercy ( KTOM's Articulations &amp; Invigilations ) 16:23, 26 October 2016 (UTC)

In reviewing the abstract of the source provided by it appears that your claim of "quite common" is a bit of a stretch (sinistral ≤ 10% overall). On the other hand the interviewee in the source article provided by is also apparently a bit of a statistical outlier where he states he has been working with snails for 20 years and never seen a "lefty" before and that the odds are somewhere between "1 in 10,000" to "1 in 1,000,000". Frankly the credentials and substance of JoJan's source are far more reliable in my opinion.

That being said, as someone who's knowledge of snails generally is reserved to cleaning them off the bottom of my shoe following unfortunate sidewalk accidents, I find the idea that snails can only mate with same spiral types to be an intriguing bit of scientific trivia. I hope you will incorporate this information into the article in a meaningful way when you get a chance.

I can only guess that the reporter found the whole help poor sex-starved Lefty find a mate to be a sort of cutesy human-interest piece of fluff, certainly not serious journalism. Of course if newspapers and other news media would resume using qualified copyeditors more, these kinds of factual errors would make it into the news much less often.

PS: Would you happen to know if there are any other animal species with physiologically incompatible subspecies? Koala Tea Of Mercy ( KTOM's Articulations &amp; Invigilations ) 23:21, 27 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Well I guess it all depends on where you look. In temperate European wet lands and especially moderately eutrophic ponds, the sinistrally coiled Bladder snails (Physidea spp) are quite common especially P. fontinalis amongst water weeds where it can be the dominant species. Further east in Europe on land are the Clausilidae or Door snails, also sinistrally coiled, which again are reasonably common in their generally rocky habitat - just as two examples. I suspect that the statistics you have quoted probably refer to anomalous occurrences of sinistrally coiled snails of dextrally coiled species (sports). However, I do heartily agree that  the great majority of news media not only need better copy editors but also correspondents and journalists with even some basic science knowledge - but not all things in life are possible. I will certainly try and incorporate something of the issues of anomalous mollusc chirality on reproduction, if I can fiend some robust sources. With regard to anomalous growth patterns affecting reproduction, there are probably very many. Except for humans, most significant body form changes are usually enough to prevent reproduction in the wild since competition from others is too great. Interestingly I suspect that the snail featured in the dubious piece of BBC science probably could mate since the reproductive behaviour of snails is to shoot darts into one another and that is probably not dependent on chirality. However, gene dominance would probably ensure that all offspring were of the normal chirality. It is also possible that the abnormal chirality was an epigenetic effect. Perhaps there is a little research project for some up and coming young scientist.  Oh shucks they have already started ! Regards  Velella  Velella Talk  09:05, 28 October 2016 (UTC)


 * I just wanted to comment that love darts are used prior to actual mating -- they do not carry sperm and are not used instead of mating. Invertzoo (talk) 13:40, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

Seeking some clarification on "snail" et al. vs. gastropod
I get that the word "snail" often refers to land snails (tho no ref is provided for this), and that it can also refer to sea snails and apparently some other groups like the Monoplacophora (really?). However, none of the first four paragraphs of our current "Snail" article has any sources/ references. The current article on sea snails makes clear that that term lacks specificity (and also states several things about sea snails that appear to be just as true for land snails, making me wonder why we have separate articles if living in saltwater vs. freshwater is about as useful as having separate articles on tree-dwelling mammals and land-dwelling mammals when this is is not a meaningful distinction). - the "snail lady", and. If anyone else can offer some insights, I would be glad to see them. Jon and I took care of cobras a bit ago, and Invert and I have sorted out scallop, both of which might be helpful (?) to refer to. The lead to this article should be able to state what a "snail" is and meaningfully distinguish it from the related topics/ articles on the gastropods, sea snails, land snails, slugs, sea slugs, semi-slugs (there is currently no article on freshwater slugs, and land slugs redirects to slug), etc. and do it without resorting to dictionary definitions like "the word 'snail' can refer to..." ( all I am hoping for at the moment is some justification for the current situation, which still feels more than a bit wrong to me. ).  KDS4444 (talk) 09:33, 15 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Good luck finding sources for this kind of thing and good luck trying to make sense of it all. Gastropod is of course a scientific term, whereas snail and slug are loose common names. Snail is basically a gastropod which has a shell, and slug is basically a gastropod which has no shell, but they are of course very imprecise common names. Some slugs have internal shells or even small external shells. And... the word slug has been applied to things such as sea cucumbers, which aren't even mollusks!


 * The freshwater snails are certainly different families altogether from the land snails, which are in turn different families altogether from the marine snails. However, there are a few species which live in habitats intermediate between marine and terrestrial, and a few species that are somewhat amphibious between land and freshwater. There are almost no freshwater slugs, although there are a few, please see here:

http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/16865


 * Sorry -- I am too busy with creating primary sources to get involved in trying to work out the best way of sorting this all out. Invertzoo (talk) 13:35, 15 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Agree with Invertzoo (and with you, KDS4444) on this matter, including on being too busy just now. Anyway, it is typical of the consequences of the policy of basing the arrangement of WP on perceived common names rather than taxonomic realities, and then perpetually trying to make sense of the resulting mess. What really is needed is a decent article on each of the families, and replacing the Snail article with something like Slugs, snails and related Mollusca, linking adequately with Mollusca and the relevant family articles, and with all the other common names and cross-linked to Wiktionary. JonRichfield (talk) 05:13, 16 April 2017 (UTC)

The good snails do.
Snails are not just pests. Ants are pests. Ants kill and eat snails. I believe that snails eat the red mites and other littler pests that can take over. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.100.184.67 (talk) 14:15, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

Polyphyletic ?
Pulmonata says it's polyphylectic too (which clashes with the beginning of Overview)

Ilyak (talk) 20:32, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks for pointing this out. I've changed the article accordingly. JoJan (talk) 14:04, 26 August 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 September 2017
I would like to add something about the partula snails Some guy with weird face (talk) 00:13, 8 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is not the right page to request additional user rights. You may reopen this request with the specific changes to be made and someone will add them for you, or if you have an account, you can wait until you are autoconfirmed and edit the page yourself. —   IVORK  Discuss 00:20, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Uncited sections
Tagged the main sections where citations were insufficient or missing entirely. Further more there's some lede content, which is uncited and not repeated with citations later in the body of the article. These parts of the article require citing in the lede or expansion and referencing within the body. Simply citing each article body statement will fix the majority of these issues. Edaham (talk) 11:14, 24 September 2017 (UTC)

Reproduction?
It seems really odd that the only mention of snail reproduction in the article is a reference to mythology, particularly considering that most land snails are hermaphroditic, which is pretty interesting.Matt Thorn (talk) 05:29, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

snail
are slow — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.240.163.165 (talk) 18:22, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 15 March 2018
89.240.163.165 (talk) 18:24, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting question.svg Question: What edit do you want made? qwerty6811 :-) Chat Ping me 18:32, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Article could use much improvement
The article tells us very little about the biology of the snail.

What are the parts of their bodies? What do they eat? How do they reproduce? What are their life stages? Where do they live? How do various snail species differ?

We are told lots of other things, but very little about snail biology. I hope someone knowledgeable about snails can fill in some of this information.65.132.0.175 (talk) 15:15, 17 November 2020 (UTC)


 * I guiess that is because most of the relevant biology is at Gastropoda - I guess this article should say that somewhere, but Gastropoda is linked in the first sentence. Regards  Velella  Velella Talk 16:20, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Korean? (Fruticiola sieboldiana)
Hi, wonder if there are anything about Fruticiola sieboldiana, which is stated in https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/달팽이 as if 달팽이, which is "snail" in Korean, is sometimes used to only call Fruticiola sieboldiana, which makes the situation looks like this is related to Korea mostly. Anyway, I don't know how to search these, and I'd thank anyone who clarifies the situation. Thanks, Luke Kern Choi 5 (talk) 06:33, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

Need a few more additions
Paragraph 2 of the overview section is gonna need a reference. In fact, a lot of things need references. Something about reproduction and mating. A biology section, an evolution chain, the such. ECPBlue (talk) 01:09, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 September 2021
At the end of the second paragraph, I recommend changing "The snail has also been used as a metaphor: someone who is not moving fast enough is 'slow as a snail.'" Notice it describes the saying as a metaphor, even though the saying uses the word "as", I recommend changing the word "metaphor" to "simile" 71.69.68.250 (talk) 18:45, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅ -322UbnBr2 (Talk &#124; Contributions &#124; Actions) 04:10, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Diet
Snails feed primarily on decaying organic matter, but they also eat plant matter, fungi, and insects. Snails eating habits vary widely, with some being generalists and some being specialist feeders. MsHeltonReads (talk) 18:37, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 January 2022
Replace exiting Diet section with text below. Poor quality, borderline plagiarism, and misinformation. Added additional citation and rephrased existing text.


 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate.Kpddg  (talk)  03:19, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 January 2022
Despite contrary beliefs, snails have two pairs of antenna on top of their head. Due to the sensitivity of these antennae snails will lower them if you touch them. They have two eyes and a little “smiley face” in from of their head. The “smiley face” is their mouth and they use their mouth to consume food, such as leaves. Most snails come in a pastel blue shell color which often include yello spots on it. On the other hand, the snail itself is usually a white color. AllKnowerOfSnails31WhateverYourFavoriteNumbersAre (talk) 03:24, 10 January 2022 (UTC) {Despite contrary beliefs, snails have two pairs of antenna on top of their head. Due to the sensitivity of these antennae snails will lower them if you touch them. They have two eyes and a little “smiley face” in from of their head. The “smiley face” is their mouth and they use their mouth to consume food, such as leaves. Most snails come in a pastel blue shell color which often include yello spots on it. On the other hand, the snail itself is usually a white color.}
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 11:24, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

edit request
Snail describes a snail named Gee Geronimo with the sentence It weighed exactly 900 g (2 lb). 900 grams is not exactly 2 pounds (which would be 907.18474 grams according to Wikipedia's pound (mass) article). Please change it to something like It weighed exactly 900 g (roughly 2 lbs) or (approximately 2 pounds). Thanks a (metric) ton. --173.67.42.107 (talk) 09:57, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Developmental and Molecular Biology Spring 2023
— Assignment last updated by Devbiostudent1 (talk) 07:22, 10 April 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 May 2023
Please add 'https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-snails-idUSL2055417620071220' as a source for "The eggs of certain snail species are eaten in a fashion similar to the way caviar is eaten." SuperKCM (talk) 19:17, 17 May 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ AnnaMankad (talk) 02:14, 18 May 2023 (UTC)