snail

1. Any of numerous aquatic or terrestrial mollusks of the class Gastropoda, typically having a spirally coiled shell, broad retractile foot, and distinct head.
2. A slow-moving, lazy, or sluggish person.

[Middle English, from Old English snægl.]

For more information on snail, visit Britannica.com.

Any of the approximately 74,000 species in the class Gastropoda of the phylum Mollusca or, alternatively, any of the 12 or so species of land pulmonate gastropods used as human food.

The shell of snails is in one piece and typically turbinate (see illustration), but may be planospiral or limpet-shaped, or may be secondarily lost (as in land slugs and marine nudibranchs). In development, gastropods have undergone torsion (the visceral mass and the mantle-shell covering it have become twisted through 180° in relation to the head and foot) so that the mantle cavity is placed anteriorly above the head.

Diversity of snail shells. (After R. R. Shrock and W. H. Twenhotel, Principles of Invertebrate Paleontology, 2d ed., McGraw-Hill, 1953)

In feeding, all snails use a characteristic rasping tongue or radula. This is a chitinous ribbon bearing teeth which is moved over a supporting protrusible “tongue” with a to-and-fro action. The radular apparatus has a twofold function: it serves both for rasping off food material (mechanically like an inverted version of the upper incisor teeth of a beaver) and for transporting the food back into the gut like a conveyor belt.

Both fresh-water and terrestrial snail species serve as vectors (first or sole intermediate hosts) in the transmission of flukes (Trematoda) infecting humans or domestic animals. See also Digenea; Gastropoda; Pulmonata; Schistosomiasis.

The small snail eaten in Europe is Helix pomatia; the giant African snail (which weighs several hundred grams) is Achatima fulica.

Prehistoric sites have uncovered piles of this gastropod mollusk's spiral shell, indicating that snails were popular early on. They were greatly favored by ancient Romans, who cultivated special vineyards on which the snails could feed and fatten. The best-known varieties today are the vineyard or Burgundy snail and the petit-gris. The vineyard snail has a diet of grape leaves and, though it grows slowly and is somewhat difficult to raise, is considered the best eating. It grows to about 13⁄4 inches, has a streaked, dull, yellowish brown shell and mottled flesh. The smaller (about 1 inch) French petit-gris is now being cultivated in the United States and has a brownish-gray shell and flesh. Other varieties are cultivated in Algeria, Turkey, China, Indonesia and Africa but are not as highly esteemed as the vineyard snail and petit-gris. Fresh snails are available year-round and can be found in specialty markets. Fresh American-cultivated snails do not require the purification period that European snails do but should be used the same day they're purchased. Snails are usually boiled before being baked or broiled in the shell with a seasoned butter. Canned snails and packaged snail shells are available in gourmet markets and many supermarkets. See also snail plate; snail tongs; shellfish.

To snail-mail something. “Snail me a copy of those graphics, will you?”

Gastropod mollusc with a spiral, coiled shell. Some species of snails act as intermediate hosts for flukes and are thus of veterinary importance.

• s. bait — see metaldehyde, methiocarb.

A gastropod closely related to the slug, but with a shell. It feeds on plants at night.

We often association snails with slowness, and a dream about snails could relate to our sense of something moving as a "snail's pace" or a communication arriving via "snail mail." Alternatively, as an animal with a hard shell, a snail can represent someone's psychological shell.

Helix pomatia, a species of land snail

Snail is a common name for almost all members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in a general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. Otherwise snail-like creatures that lack a shell (or have only a very small one) are called slugs.

Snails can be found in a wide range of environments including ditches, deserts, and the abyssal depths of the sea. Although most people are familiar with terrestrial snails, land snails are in the minority. Marine snails constitute the great majority of snail species and have much greater diversity and a greater biomass. Numerous kinds of snail can also be found in fresh water. Many snails are herbivorous, though a few land species and many marine species are omnivores or predatory carnivores.

Snails that respire using a lung belong to the group Pulmonata, while those with gills form a paraphyletic group; in other words, snails with gills are divided into a number of taxonomic groups that are not very closely related. Snails with lungs and with gills have diversified widely enough over geological time that a few species with gills can be found on land, numerous species with a lung can be found in freshwater, and a few species with a lung can be found in the sea.

Snails have thousands of tooth-like stuctures. These thousands of tiny teeth are located on a ribbon-like tongue and work like a file and rip the food to bits. The tongue is called a radula.

Contents 1 Types of snails by habitat 2 Slugs 3 Cultural depictions 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Types of snails by habitat

Main articles: Land snail, Freshwater snail, and Sea snail

Slugs

Main article: Slug

Gastropod species which lack a conspicuous shell are commonly called slugs rather than snails, although, other than having a reduced shell or no shell at all, there are really no appreciable differences between a slug and a snail except in habitat and behavior. A shell-less animal is much more maneuverable, and thus even quite large land slugs can take advantage of habitats or retreats with very little space – places that would be inaccessible to a similar-sized snail, such as under loose bark on trees or under stone slabs, logs or wooden boards lying on the ground.

Taxonomic families of land slugs and sea slugs occur within numerous larger taxonomic groups of shelled species. In other words, the reduction or loss of the shell has evolved many times independently within several very different lineages of gastropods, thus the various families of slugs are very often not closely related to one another.

Cultural depictions

Moche land snails (Scutalus sp.), 200 AD. Larco Museum Collection, Lima, Peru.

Due to its slowness, the snail has traditionally been seen as a symbol of laziness. In Judeo-Christian culture, it has often been viewed as a manifestation of the deadly sin of sloth.^[1] Psalms 58:8 uses snail slime as a metaphorical punishment.

Snails were widely noted and used in divination.^[1] The Greek poet Hesiod wrote that snails signified the time to harvest by climbing the stalks, while the Aztec moon god Tecciztecatl bore a snail shell on his back. This symbolised rebirth; the snail's penchant for appearing and disappearing was analogised with the moon.^[2] More recently, Carl Jung noted that the snail was representative of the self in dreams. In psychology, the soft insides are analogous to the subconscious, as the shell is the conscious.^[1]

One expert, Professor Ronald Chase of McGill University in Montreal, has suggested that the ancient myth of Cupid's arrows might be based on early observations of the love dart behavior of the land snail species Helix aspersa.^[3]

In contemporary speech, the expression "a snail's pace" is often used to describe a slow, inefficient process.

The phrase "snail mail" is used to mean regular postal service delivery of paper messages as opposed to the delivery of E-mail or electronic mail, which is virtually instantaneous.

See also

• Pasilalinic-sympathetic compass
• Gastropod shell

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} de Vries, Ad (1976). Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company. p. 430. ISBN 0-7204-8021-3. 
2. ^ Cooper, JC (1992). Symbolic and Mythological Animals. London: Aquarian Press. p. 213. ISBN 1-85538-118-4. 
3. ^ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0212_040213_lovebirds_2.html

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gastropoda

• Predatory snails on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site.
• Land Snail Ecology
• Snailworlds-Timelaps

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - snegl

idioms:

• at a snail's pace    med sneglefart
• snail mail    brevpost

Nederlands (Dutch)
slak, huisjesslak

Français (French)
n. - escargot

idioms:

• snail mail    Services Postaux très lents
• snail's pace    à une allure d'escargot

Deutsch (German)
n. - Schnecke

idioms:

• snail mail    normales Postsystem
• snail's pace    im Schneckentempo

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ζωολ.) σαλιγκάρι, (μηχαν.) ελικοειδές έκκεντρο

idioms:

• at a snail's pace    σε ρυθμό χελώνας
• snail mail    παραδοσιακό ταχυδρομείο (σε σύγκριση με το ηλεκτρονικό)

Italiano (Italian)
lumaca

idioms:

• at a snail's pace    a passi di lumaca
• snail mail    posta regolare

Português (Portuguese)
n. - caracol (m), lesma (f)

idioms:

• at a snail's pace    vagaroso, mole, lesma
• snail mail    correio normal

Русский (Russian)
улитка, тихоход, ползти как улитка, возиться (с чем-л.)

idioms:

• at a snail's pace    черепашьим шагом
• snail mail    обычная почта по сравнению с электронной

Español (Spanish)
n. - caracol

idioms:

• snail mail    correo demorado, correo por tierra
• snail's pace    muy lento, a paso de tortuga

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - snigel, sölkorv

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
蜗牛, 脑筋迟钝的人, 行动迟缓的人

idioms:

• at a snail's pace    非常缓慢地
• snail mail    邮寄信件

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 蝸牛, 腦筋遲鈍的人, 行動遲緩的人

idioms:

• at a snail's pace    非常緩慢地
• snail mail    郵寄信件

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 달팽이, 게으름쟁이, 나선상의 캠

idioms:

• at a snail's pace    느릿느릿, 동작이 느린

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - カタツムリ, のろま

idioms:

• snail mail    通常の郵便配送

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) بزاقه, حلزون, ألبطيء أو ألكسول‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חילזון, שבלול‬

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