Garden Snail
Scientific name: Cornu aspersum
Alternative name/s:
Cornu aspersum
Cornu aspersum
Click to enlarge image
The Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) is widespread in urban gardens and suburbs throughout Australia.
Image: Matt Tudor
CC BY-NC 4.0
CC BY-NC 4.0
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Genus
- Cornu
- Species
- aspersum
- Subfamily
- Helicinae
- Family
- Helicidae
- Super Family
- Helicoidea
- Suborder
- Helicina
- Infraorder
- Helicoidei
- Order
- Stylommatophora
- Superorder
- Eupulmonata
- Subclass
- Heterobranchia
- Class
- Gastropoda
- Phylum
- Mollusca
- Kingdom
- Animalia
-
- Size Range
- 3.5 cm
Generally, snails found in your garden will be introduced species, which have two pairs of tentacles, rather than one pair as in native snails and slugs.
Habitat
Garden snails are found in urban areas.
The Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) is widespread in urban gardens and suburbs throughout Australia.
Image: Rand Workman
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Distribution
Widespread in cities throughout the world.
This map shows species occurrence observations from data recorded in the Atlas of Living Australia.
Other behaviours and adaptations
The Garden Snail was introduced to Australia from Europe. It is always associated with human populations and rarely encountered away from cities. This edible snail is commercially raised in Australia and exported to countries such as France where it is eaten as 'escargot'. Cornu aspersum is slightly smaller than the French species (Helix pomatia), which does not occur in Australia but apparently has a similar taste.
