Brown-Lipped Snail

Description:

A species of air-breathing land snail. It is one of the most common species of land snail in Europe and has been introduced to North America. The color of the shell of Cepaea nemoralis is very variable, reddish, brownish, yellow or whitish, with or without dark brown colour bands. Apertural lip usually dark brown, rarely white. Cepaea nemoralis differs from Cepaea hortensis usually by its dark lip. Apart from the band at the lip of the shell, grove snails are highly polymorphic in their shell colour and banding. The background colour of the shell can sometimes be so pale as to be almost white; it can also be yellow, pink, chestnut through to dark brown, and the shells can be with or without dark bandings. The bands vary in intensity of color, in width and in total number, from zero up to a total of six. The umbilicus is narrow but open in juveniles, closed in adults. For every colour variant names were established in the 1800s; this was later abandoned. The surface of the shell is semi-glossy, and it has from 4½ to 5½ whorls. The width of the shell is 18–25 mm. The height of the shell is 12–22 mm. The animal is moderately slow and not very shy. It feeds mainly on dead or senescent plants, in this case it was eating cat kibble.

Habitat:

It lives in shrubs and open woods in plains and highlands, dunes, cultivated habitats, gardens and roadsides.

Notes:

Look at Reference to see all the shell variations, it's amazing!