#typical snails

Garden snails’ bite might just be worse than their bark;  like many species of mollusk, they actually have teeth! Up to 14,000 microscopic teeth form a flexible band called a radula, which scrapes up pieces of food.

(Image: A garden snail (Cornu aspersum) by Ferran Turmo Gort via iNaturalist)

Cupid’s love darts aren’t real, but the garden snail’s is. Like many hermaphroditic mollusks, garden snails produce sharp darts made out of hard chitin that they pierce their mates with. Studies have shown that these darts are laced with pheremone-like compounds that can promote sperm preservation in the partner.

(Image: A trio of garden snails (Cornu aspersum) by Bill Frank)