Snail Life Cycle

Introduction

Snails are gastropod animals which have an enclosing shell, into which it is able to retract entirely, for protection. Snails are a different category of animals that fall under the phylum Mollusca. In household situations, snails tend to destroy fruits and vegetables. Snails are active during the wet season and inactive during the winter season.

Snails are omnipresent in the world and are found in mountains, deserts, forests and oceans. Due to its tiny size, snails often fall prey to animals like lizards, snakes, rats and birds. Animals who appear similar to snails but lack the enclosing shell are called slugs. Snails are cold-blooded invertebrates with an enclosed shell for hydration and protection purposes.

Let’s look at the life cycle of a snail to get a better understanding.

Life Cycle of Snail

1) The Egg –

Snails are mostly hermaphrodites, each snail has both male and female reproductive organs. Some of the snails are not hermaphrodites and exist as separate male and female individual animals. Since most of the snails are considered to be hermaphrodites, it is easy for snails to reproduce. A snail fertilizes the other snail’s eggs and lays a clutch of eggs. After fertilization, the snail digs holes in the soil and lays her eggs there. Egg-laying occurs from late autumn to early spring.

2) The Young Snail –

Two weeks after the eggs are laid in the soil, the hatchlings emerge from the eggs. The young snail eats its eggshell and sometimes other snail eggs. During this stage, the young snails continue to feed and grow, throughout winter and spring season. The enclosed shell begins to develop as well.

3) The Adolescent Snail –

During the summer season, the snail undergoes an aestivation period, by taking rest above ground and climbing fences, roads and vegetation. The purpose of this is to avoid losing as little water as possible. The adolescent snails continue to survive in this way until they reach maturity. If it rains during summer, snails might be active for a while, but they do not mate or breed during the summer.

4) The Adult Snail –

Snails reach sexual maturity as the autumn starts. The cool and moist conditions prevailing during rainfall trigger snail activity. Two to three weeks after the first autumn rain, the mating season in snails begins. Mating snails are found in pairs with the soles of their feet touching each other. The process of egg-laying begins shortly after mating and the entire life cycle repeats again.

Conclusion

Snails are known to be one of the oldest animals living on the planet. Fossil evidence of primitive gastropods highlights the fact that these creatures have been surviving for 500 million years. There are several kinds of snails but are mostly classified based on their habitat – terrestrial and aquatic snails. While moving snails tend to leave behind a trail of slime, transparent liquid they create, which allows them to commute on any surface without harming their body.