Choices! What will it be? #33

Greetings great steemit community and everyone. Hope this meets you well. My warm regards to all and a very big thank you to the steem for ladies community for this beautiful contest. A special thanks to @patjewell.

Today am writing about the snail.

The snail typically known to be a very slow creature and for its famous shell is an invertebrate animal which has a shell to which it enters into in the face of danger or when it wants to rest.

The shell of the snail is usually spiral in nature and it’s always cooked to the right but did you know that in England there’s a famous snail that was named Jeremy. Jeremy is famous because its shell was curved to the left instead of coiling to the right like every other snail.Source

The snail is scientifically known to belong to the Gastropoda family and the mollusks as its species.

Snails have different types, with over 3000 species but all these species are classified generally into the sea snail which are the ones that lives in salt water, the land snails which are the ones that lives on land and the fresh water snails which are the ones that lives in fresh waters but we are mostly used to the land snails.
The Green snail and the cane snail are examples of the land snails while the apple snail and the Nettie snail are examples of fresh water snails. The periwinkle snail and the cone snail are examples of the sea water snails.

The hard and spiral shaped shell of the snail is a very important part of the snail because it houses the internal organs. The reason the shell is hard is because of the calcium carbonate that it’s made up of. The snail has a foot that’s muscular in nature which helps it to move around terrains without friction. it’s head also has tantacles sticking out on it and there are eyes on the tentacles which enables it to see. Did you know that The differennt species of snails have different colors ranging from yellow to brown, red and even pink. These are all wound up in beautiful patterns in some.

Around the area where I live, I see snails in the soil, around dirts, under the leaves and especially during rainy days at night I see them everywhere moving round and some times I pick them up and used them in making soup. So whenever it rains I come out at night to pick them up. They are quite crunchy and delicious to taste.

Did you know that snails can live for about two to five years and even sometimes up to fifteen years. They feed on insects, worms, leaves, faeces, centipedes and sometimes even on their fellow snails. The tongue of the snail is known as the radulla and it has tiny like structures that looks like teeth which it uses to pieces food into edible bits.

They usually show more activity at night when the atmosphere is very humid and when it’s dry they go into dormancy until the environment is favorable again. Their shell helps to protect them against predators such as birds, rats, snakes and fishes etc.

Most snails have both male and female reproductive systems for reproduction hence they are known as haemaprodites. The snails lays between 100 to 500 eggs but only few are able to hatch about twenty to fifty after two weeks. The baby snail Is very soft with it delicate shell. I’ve seen a lot of baby snails and they are truly beautiful to behold. If you want to know the age of the snail, check the number of rings on the shell.

Did you know that the snail can sleep for as high as 18 hours and some have even been said to sleep up to about three days. Most snails are not poisonous hence we eat them as part of our delicious delicacy and here in Nigeria it’s a part of our cuisine and they are also expensive to buy especially during dry seasons. The shell of the snail is also used over here as jewelry and the slime is used as treatment for skin care.
Find here the reference for this article

Hope you enjoyed my article. I want to invite @ruthjoe @goodybest and @lhorgic to participate in this contest.