Monday, August 2, 2021

Largest snail in Canada

Well, the largest one you might find without diving. It's a Lewis' moon snail, and it lives in the lower intertidal area of mud flats. I found this shell in Parksville last week, and although it is half the diameter of the largest moon snails, its body would've enveloped my whole hand. 

Moon snails are predators, typically feeding on clams by drilling a hole in their shells and consuming the clams from their insides. 

More commonly found than the shells (at least in my case) are moon snail collars, a coil of mucous and sand about a foot in diameter that contains their eggs.