Bug Wiki
Sticker of Great ramshorn
Bug card No. 0659 of 1,500

Great ramshorn

Planorbarius corneus
Eats: A bit of everythingSnails, slugs and wormsPonds, rivers and shoresNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The great ramshorn is a water snail with a flat, round shell coiled up like a ram's horn. It is the biggest ramshorn snail in Europe. It slides along water plants in quiet ponds and rivers.

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
Europe and western Asia, from Britain to Siberia and the Middle East, in ponds, slow rivers and canals
Length
2.2 to 4 cm (0.87 to 1.6 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.03 km/h (0.02 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Wash your hands after holding one.
What does it eat?
It is not fussy and eats whatever it can find in the water, depending on how hungry it is.
For real!Photo of Great ramshorn
Picture by Claus Ableiter. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Great ramshorn about 4 cm long (1.6 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 7 grains of rice in a rowneeds 2 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Great ramshorn compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its blood has a red protein called hemoglobin, like ours. It helps the snail live in water with very little air.

2

It has two ways to breathe. In fresh water it takes air through its skin, and in stale water it pokes a little tube up to the surface to fill its lung.

3

Its shell looks like it curls one way, but it really curls the other way.

4

Baby snails have tiny hairs on their shells.

5

In an aquarium it can live for up to 6 years.

you asked

Most asked questions about Great ramshorn

?How big is the great ramshorn snail?

Its shell is usually about 3.5 centimetres across, sometimes up to 4 centimetres.

?How does the great ramshorn breathe underwater?

It takes in oxygen through its skin, or comes up and fills its lung through a little tube.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Planorbarius corneus
Named by
Linnaeus, 1758
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Planorbidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Hygrophila > Planorbidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Planorbarius corneus (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 Claus Ableiter. 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.

More from the same group: Snails, slugs and worms

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores