A Quick Guide to the Different Types of Snails
There are literally hundreds of different types of snails out in the world, the largest variety being underwater. That being said, it's funny how the word "snail" makes most of us picture the land snails that are so dependable to show up in the garden after a rainy day. For the sake of being informed, we are going to look at the three main types of snails: land, aquarium, and edible, concentrating on the most popular type of each group.
Let's start out with land snails. These snails are air-breathers and fall into the genus called Helix. The most popular species out of this category is called Helix Aspersa. The helix aspersa has a hard shell that protects its internal organs. This shell is shaped in the typical "snail" fashion: a side-swept swirl. When the snail is fully extended out of its shell, the upper portion containing the head and the lower potion containing the tail become visible. The snail will not fully shed its shell because this houses his lung, heart, kidney, and digestive organs.
One of the characteristic features of the helix aspersa is the double sets of tentacles on its head. As kids, most of us probably tried poking the larger tentacles to see what kind of reaction we could broach from the snail. Too bad we didn't realize that we were jabbing the poor thing's eyes! The smaller set of tentacles are used to help the snail feel its way around. The tentacles can be pulled inward should the need arise, but usually when the snail's body is extended from the shell, his tentacles are also extended.
The next on our list of different types of snails is the aquarium snail. Granted, there are many different species of snail that make suitable additions to an aquarium, but the most popular variety by far seems to be gilled snails, or prosobranchs. Pond snails are a very common choice within this group of snails because they are excellent cleaners. Although their scavenging lifestyle may seem a little boring, many aquarium owners find that these little guys are the perfect remedy for clearing up leftover bits of food and even carcasses. They are relatively small, topping out at a length of about a quarter of an inch, so they won't steal the spot light from the main attraction--the fish. Pond snails tend to have a reputation for breeding like rabbits, but this is usually due to the tank owner overfeeding the fish. Snails are definitely going to proliferate if they have an overly-abundant food source.
The last type of snail we're going to talk about is the edible sort. You may be surprised (or not so much) to learn that the helix aspersa makes a reappearance here as the most popular variety of edible snail. Another popular type of edible snail is the helix pomatia, which is extremely similar to the aspersa species. The French consume about 40,000 tons of edible snails, or escargot as they are referred to in France, each year. But, the French were not the first to put the snail to culinary use. According to the Apicius, which is the oldest remaining cookbook in existence, snails have been eaten since at least the Roman times. This cookbook describes in detail how the Romans used to prepare the snails to be eaten. In today's culinary fashion, snails are mostly prepared using a mixture of butter, garlic, and herbs. Great preparation must go into cleaning the snails properly to ensure that grit, sand, and other undesirable bits are not consumed.
When it comes to the different types of snails of the world, there are so many fascinating types that have already been discovered, but it has been suggested that there are still many more species out there that have yet to be discovered. But for now, it seems that the helix aspersa, the pond snail, and the helix pomatia take the gold for the categories of land popularity, aquarium suitability, and tastiness. Thanks for reading!