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Sticker of Decollate snail
Bug card No. 0392 of 1,500

Decollate snail

Rumina decollata
Name means: “decollate means with the head cut off, because the grown-up snail breaks off the pointy tip of its own shell”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

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.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect at all, it has no legs! But kids find it on every bug hunt, so it lives in Bug Wiki too.
Lives in
Around the Mediterranean, and now also in North America, Brazil, China and Britain, in gardens
Length
1.4 cm (0.55 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.02 km/h (0.01 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It is only dangerous for other snails.
What does it eat?
It hunts garden snails, slugs and their eggs. It also eats some plants.
For real!Photo of Decollate snail
Picture by tato grasso. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Decollate snail about 1.4 cm long (0.55 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowneeds 3 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Decollate snail compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its shell grows to about 4 to 4.5 centimetres long.

2

People let it loose in parts of America to eat the brown garden snails that nibble crops.

3

One snail can lay about 500 eggs in its life, one at a time in the soil.

4

When it is dry or cold, it digs deep into the soil and waits.

5

It is busiest at night and when it rains.

you asked

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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