Garden Banded Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
The garden banded snail (Cepaea hortensis), is one of the smallest air-breathing land snails, a terrestrial pulmonated gastropod mollusk in the family Helicidae that I found another day in the wood. It is a close relative of the Grove Snail. Like the grove snail (brown-lipped snail), it has considerable variability in shell colour and banding, although the shell of the white-lipped snail is perhaps most commonly yellow, with or without brown banding. I first thought that I would not be able to capture it due to the lighting problem and waiting for it to come out was likely wasting time because the way it moved made me hate to wait. This snail is tiny and bulky with brown soft shell that can be distinguished from mature adults by the presence of lateral stripes and included in the colorless group slug, though very sticky, and it lacks a keel. It is generally seen in any well-vegetated area, including gardens. I assume, it just got its new shell that may cause fragility if I touched. As we may all know snails, slugs and other gastropods move by using their muscles to generate travelling waves of stress in the thin layers of mucus they lay down.
| Camera | Nikon D7000 |
|---|---|
| Category | Gastropod Photography |
| Lens | Tamron Tele-Macro 70-300 |
hello @abduhawab What a fascinating observation of the garden banded snail! Your attention to detail and description of its features, including the variability in shell color and banding, adds depth to your encounter. It's wonderful that you were able to capture this tiny creature, and your insights into its movements and characteristics provide a glimpse into the world of these small but intricate beings. Keep exploring and sharing the wonders of nature! 🐌🍃
The snails that you show are very beautiful. As we know, snails are animals that have shells and move very slowly. If we talk about shells, snail shells like the one in the picture you show have a lot of nutritional content in them.I once read in an article that snail shells are used as nano calcium which has a level of calcium content that is good enough to be used as artificial feed.What I mean by artificial feed is artificial feed for shrimp, Because shrimp growth requires high levels of calcium when the shrimp molt. So in one study, nano calcium from snail shells like this was also used.