Decollate snail
The decollate snail has a long, cone-shaped shell with a flat, blunt end. When it is grown up, it rubs the tip of its shell against hard things until the point breaks off. It is also a hunter that eats other snails.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Decollate snail compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its shell grows to about 4 to 4.5 centimetres long.
People let it loose in parts of America to eat the brown garden snails that nibble crops.
One snail can lay about 500 eggs in its life, one at a time in the soil.
When it is dry or cold, it digs deep into the soil and waits.
It is busiest at night and when it rains.
Most asked questions about Decollate snail
?What does the decollate snail eat?
It eats other snails, slugs and their eggs, and some plants too.
?Why does the decollate snail have a broken shell?
When it is grown up, it rubs off the pointy tip of its shell on purpose, so the end looks flat.
?How big is the decollate snail?
Its shell is about 4 to 4.5 centimetres long and about 1.4 centimetres wide.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Rumina decollata
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Snails, slugs and worms
- Family
- Achatinidae
- Classification
- Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Achatinidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America
Where the facts come from
- Decollate snail (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by tato grasso. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Garden snail
Giant African land snail
Leopard slug
Bladder snail
Medicinal leech
Common earthworm
Ailanthus webworm
Salt marsh moth
Silver-spotted skipper
Diamondback moth
Cotton bollworm
Asian swallowtail