Helicella itala is a species of medium-sized, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Geomitridae, the hairy snails and their allies. The English common name for this species is heath snail.

Life cycle

The width of the egg is 1.5 mm. This species of snail makes and uses love darts during mating.

Description

The 12–20 mm. shell is broad and very depressed with an open coil forming a convex, low spire. The umbilicus is very wide. The whorls are slightly convex, and have shallow sutures. The aperture is elliptical and lacks an internal rib. The surface (periostracum) is white or pale yellow-brown. The shell often (but not always) has dark brown or yellow-brown spiral bands, and the surface has fine irregular growth ridges.

Distribution

The common heath snail is a West Palearctic species which is found in the British Isles, France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland.

Habitat

The animals live on dry, exposed habitats, such as roadsides and railway embankments, vegetated sand dunes as well as rock boulders and short grassland. They live up to 2000 m above sea level in the Alps and Pyrenees.