A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. Land snail is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as slugs). However, it is not always easy to say which species are terrestrial, because some are more or less amphibious between land and fresh water, and others are relatively amphibious between land and salt water.
Land snails are a polyphyletic group comprising at least ten independent evolutionary transitions to terrestrial life (the last common ancestor of all gastropods was marine). The majority of land snails are pulmonates that have a lung and breathe air. Most of the non-pulmonate land snails belong to lineages in the Caenogastropoda, and tend to have a gill and an operculum. The largest clade of land snails is the Cyclophoroidea, with more than 7,000 species. Many of these operculate land snails live in habitats or microhabitats that are sometimes (or often) damp or wet, such as in moss.
Land snails have a strong muscular foot; they use mucus to enable them to crawl over rough surfaces and to keep their soft bodies from drying out. Like other mollusks, land snails have a mantle, and they have one or two pairs of tentacles on their head. Their internal anatomy includes a radula and a primitive brain.
In terms of reproduction, many caenogastropod land snails (e.g., diplommatinids) are dioecious, but pulmonate land snails are hermaphrodites (they have a full set of organs of both sexes) and most lay clutches of eggs in the soil. Tiny snails hatch out of the egg with a small shell in place, and the shell grows spirally as the soft parts gradually increase in size. Most land snails have shells that are right-handed in their coiling.
A wide range of different vertebrate and invertebrate animals prey on land snails. They are used as food by humans in various cultures worldwide, and are raised on farms in some areas for use as food.
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Lissachatina fulica is a species of large land snail that belongs in the subfamily Achatininae of the family Achatinidae. It is also known as the Giant African land snail. It shares the common name "giant African snail" with other species of snails such as Achatina achatina and Archachatina marginata. This snail species has been considered a significant cause of pest issues around the world. Internationally, it is the most frequently occurring invasive species of snail.
Heliciculture, commonly known as snail farming, is the process of raising edible land snails, primarily for human consumption or cosmetic use. The meat and snail eggs a.k.a. white caviar can be consumed as escargot and as a type of caviar, respectively. Perhaps the best-known edible land snail species in the Western world is Helix pomatia, commonly known as the Roman snail or the Burgundy snail. This species, however, is not fit for profitable snail farming, and is normally harvested from nature.
Helix pomatia, common names the Roman snail, Burgundy snail, or escargot, is a species of large, air-breathing stylommatophoran land snail native to Europe. It is characterized by globular brown shell. It is an edible species. Helix pomatia commonly occurs synanthropically througout its range. The present distribution is considerably affected by dispersion by human and synanthropic occurrences. The northern limits of natural distribution run presumably through central Germany and southern Poland, eastern range limits run through western-most Ukraine and Moldova/Romania to Bulgaria.
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