TIL: Cool Snail Facts

Hello! Hello! Do you remember our little snail friend I showed you on Tuesday? Well, today it's here to teach us a few interesting facts about snails. Are you ready?

Join him!

Shelled gastropods

Snails are gastropod molluscs covered by a calcium carbonate shell. They are divided into three categories:

Here we will be talking about land snails.

The largest ones on Earth might grow up to 18 cm long

The African giant snail is the biggest snail species in the world and lives in West Africa. (@greenrun, @samminator, @pearlumie, have you ever seen one? Wikipedia says they can be found in Nigeria.)

The smallest ones won't get any taller than a 1 mm

The smallest snail species on Earth are Angustopila dominikae, they are found in southern China and their height reaches 0.86 mm. [9]

They have teeth along their tongue

Snails have a ribbon-like structure inside their mouth called "radula". This is equipped with lots of tiny teeth that are used to scrap off food, similarly to a file. [1, 2]

Hermaphrodites

Snails are equipped with both reproductive organs, male and female (although a few land species present separate sexes). [1, 2]

Snails love foreplay - Love darts

An interesting part of their mating ritual is the tossing of love darts (that's right, you thought it was Cupid who used his arrows to pierce the lovers' hearts? No, snails did it first).

Love darts are sharp, pointed darts made of calcium carbonate or chitin and are used while looking for a partner, before the actual mating. They are secreted by a specific organ of the reproductive system and their size ranges usually at around 5 mm (although they can be from 1-30 mm long). These formations are not shot into the air, waiting to hit a specific organ of the recipient snail, but they are tossed when the two snails are near each other (it's a contact shot).

The mating ritual may last from 2 - 12 whole hours (wow! some women complain about very little foreplay, but this is way too long). During this time, the two partners make circles around each other, they touch tentacles, bite their lips and the area around the genital pore. The penis then starts to slightly appear. The dart is ready to be fired when mating time is almost there. The two partners move in order to get in the perfect position to shoot their darts into each other's body, which happens once one snail's body touches the other's genital pore.

As soon as the "exchange" is done, it's time for the "main course" (intercourse in other words). The partners exchange sperm, the fertilized eggs will be delivered and buried in the soil and then the parents will wait for those little "Mini Me's" to hatch from their eggs some 2-4 weeks later. Up to 100 eggs may be delivered at a single brood. [2, 3, 4, 6]

And here is a video I found on youtube that describes the whole ritual very well:

I don't need your sperm

Hermaphrodism comes with a bunch of advantages and one of these is being able to self-reproduce. Several species of snails will self-fertilize instead of mating (well, in Greece we say: "Αν πετύχει η μαλακία, τύφλα να 'χει το γα#ήσι" - "When masturbation is successful, who needs sex after all" @trumpman, did I get this right?) [2, 6]

Babies eat their unborn siblings

Hatchlings are small, delicate and fragile. Their soft shells are not able to protect them against predators and other dangers. This means that the newborn babies will need calcium supplies to build their shell stronger. In order to achieve this, they will eat the egg they hatched from, but in some cases they will even eat their unhatched siblings. [2, 6]

Hairy shells

Some snails bear tiny hair all over their shell. There is a hypothesis which claims that this hair is meant to help in locomotion, especially in wet environments. [3, 7]

They hibernate

Some snails hibernate during the winter. In order to protect themselves, they secrete a mucus to cover their shell opening and seal it off. [2]

There is snail caviar

Yes, you got it right! Some people consider snail eggs a delicacy. Snail eggs are collected, processed, sometimes even pasteurized in order to be preserved longer and then sent out in the market. Snail farming is even a thing in case you didn't know. It even has a fancy name: Heliciculture [1, 2, 8]