snail

Also known as snails

thumb|Helix pomatia sealed in its shell with a [[calcareous epiphragm]]

AI overview

A snail is a slow-moving mollusk that lives in a hard, spiral shell it carries on its back for protection. Snails are found in diverse environments around the world and play important roles in their ecosystems as both herbivores and prey for other animals.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Research

36,451 papers

Snail-borne parasitic diseases: an update on global epidemiological distribution, transmission interruption and control methods.ReviewInfectious diseases of poverty · 2018Lu XT, Gu QY, Limpanont Y et al.DOI: 10.1186/s40249-018-0414-7
Schistosomiasis from a Snail's Perspective: Advances in Snail Immunity.ReviewTrends in parasitology · 2017Pila EA, Li H, Hambrook JR et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2017.07.006
Differentiating snail intermediate hosts of Schistosoma spp. using molecular approaches: fundamental to successful integrated control mechanism in Africa.ReviewInfectious diseases of poverty · 2018Abe EM, Guan W, Guo YH et al.DOI: 10.1186/s40249-018-0401-z
Snail-trematode life history interactions: past trends and future directions.ReviewParasitology · 2001Sorensen RE, Minchella DJDOI: 10.1017/s0031182001007843
[Application of drones in Oncomelania hupensis snail control with molluscicides].ReviewZhongguo xue xi chong bing fang zhi za zhi = Chinese journal of schistosomiasis control · 2024Huang YDOI: 10.16250/j.32.1915.2024188
Microbial diversity of garden snail mucus.MicrobiologyOpen · 2022Belouhova M, Daskalova E, Yotinov I et al.DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.1263
Devastation of island biodiversity: a land snail perspective.ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026Cowie RH, Bouchet P, Fontaine BDOI: 10.1098/rstb.2024.0425
Novel insights into the glucose metabolic alterations of freshwater snails: a pathway to molluscicide innovation and snail control strategies.ReviewParasitology research · 2024Zheng T, Liu JH, Zhu TY et al.DOI: 10.1007/s00436-024-08274-2

via PubMed

~16 min read

Encyclopedic overview

17 sections

Contents

Overview
Anatomy
Diet
Types of snails by habitat
Slugs
Snail speed
Parasitic diseases
Human relevance
In agriculture
Textiles
As pets
Culinary use
Cultural depictions
See also
References
Gallery
External links

thumb|Helix pomatia sealed in its shell with a [[calcareous epiphragm]]

A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name snail is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have a coiled shell that is large enough for the animal to retract completely into. When the word "snail" is used in this most general sense, it includes not just land snails but also numerous species of sea snails and freshwater snails. Gastropods that naturally lack a shell, or have only an internal shell, are mostly called slugs, and land snails that have only a very small shell (that they cannot retract into) are sometimes called semi-slugs.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “snail” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.