Species

General Information:

African Snail Genus Distribution Map
African Snail Species Distribution Map (Courtesy of James Rushton)

Identifying Your Snail
Achatina/Archachatina Identification

Achatininae

Achatina

Achatina achatina shell achatina

Achatina albopicta shell albopicta*

Achatina craveni shell craveni*

Achatina fulica shell fulica

Achatina glutinosa shell glutinosa*

Achatina immaculata shell immaculata

Achatina iredalei shell iredalei*

Achatina nyikaensis shell nyikaensis*

Achatina reticulata shell reticulata*

Achatina smithii shell smithii*

Achatina stuhlmanni shell stuhlmanni*

Achatina varicosa shell varicosa*

Achatina zanzibarica shell zanzibarica*

Achatina zebra shell zebra*

Archachatina

Archachatina bicarinata shell bicarinata*

Archachatina shell camerunensis*

Archachatina camerunensis shell cinnamomea*

Archachatina cinnamomea shell crawfordi*

Archachatina degneri shell degneri

Archachatina dimidiata shell dimidiata*

Archachatina granulata shell granulata*

Archachatina knorrii shell knorrii*

Archachatina limitanea shell limitanea*

Archachatina marginata shell marginata

Archachatina ustulata shell ustulata*

Archachatina ventricosa shell ventricosa*

Strophocheilidae

Megalobulimus oblongus shell Megalobulimus oblongus

Other Species

Cepaea hortensis shell Cepaea hortensis*

Cepaea nemoralis shell Cepaea nemoralis*

Helicella itala shell Helicella itala*

Helix aspersa shell Helix aspersa*

Helix lucorum shell Helix lucorum*

Helix pomatia shell Helix pomatia*

Slugs

Veronicella sloanei

* No information yet. Just a shell picture.

Achatina/Archachatina Identification

The first thing for you to do is to identify what group (genus) a snail belongs to. Currently there seem to be four fairly reliable methods.

Shell Shape

Achatina snails have a pointed apex and Archachatina snails have a much blunter one. Until you have owned an Archachatina and you can compare the two together it can be hard to tell which yours is.

To help with this I have drawn a guide to what the very last whorl will look like:

Achatina

Archachatina

Achatina

Archachatina

Tail "V" Shape

As far as we know, all Archachatina snails have a V shape on their tail. So far, we only know of one Achatina which has this. It is called Achatina achatina which luckily is one of the easiest Achatina to identify for a number of reasons.

The V is a raised, serrated bump. It is easy to feel if you wet your finger and run it over the tail.

Sometimes Achatina snails seem to show a lighter V shape on their tail. This is just a change in colour and it is not raised. If it looks like a V but doesn't have a distinctive V ridge then it is an Achatina.

Achatina

Archachatina

Achatina

Archachatina

Size of Skin texture

There is a name for this but it escapes me. Let us call them pores. Archachatina have much smaller and tighter knit pores.

Examples of Achatina skin

Examples of Archachatina skin

Egg Size

Achatina snails lay small eggs 4-10 mm in diameter, in batches of 20 - 400.

Archachatina snails lay larger eggs 12-20 mm in diameter, in batches of 6 - 20.

One particular type of snail, Achatina iredalei doesn't lay eggs. It is actually ovo-viviparous and gives birth to live young. The eggs are stored and incubated internally.