Helix lucorum

Helix lucorum is a species of large, edible, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicidae, the typical snails. [2]

Helix lucorum
live specimen of Helix lucorum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Heterobranchia
Superorder: Eupulmonata
Order: Stylommatophora
Superfamily: Helicoidea
Family: Helicidae
Genus: Helix
Species:
H. lucorum
Binomial name
Helix lucorum
Synonyms[1]
  • Helix anaphora Westerlund, 1889
  • Helix annosa Mascarini, 1892
  • Helix atrocincta Bourguignat, 1883
  • Helix candida Mascarini, 1892
  • Helix elongata Bourguignat, 1860
  • Helix nigrozonata Bourguignat, 1883
  • Helix presbensis Kobelt, 1905
  • Helix rypara Bourguignat, 1883
  • Helix straminea Briganti, 1825
  • Helix straminiformis Bourguignat, 1876
  • Helix taurica Krynicki, 1833
  • Helix virago Bourguignat, 1883
  • Helix yleobia Bourguignat, 1883

Description
The shell of Helix lucorum

Adult snails weight about 20-25 g.[3]

The width of the shell is 35-60.[4] The height of the shell is 25–45 mm.[4]

This species of snail makes and uses love darts.

Distribution

The native distribution is Caucasus, Anatolia and, arguably, Balkans, it also invaded many other regions since ancient times.[5]

Few different lineages of Helix lucorum has a distinct different shell's coloration and in some regions the snails from the different lineages are invaded during the different periods forming the populations that differs from each other.[5]

Eastern native range with main genetic diversity of the species:

Balkans (probably native):

Other countries:

  • Israel[7]
  • Syria
  • Russia - could be native in Caucasus, invasive in some other regions[5]
  • Italy - probably invasive[5]
  • Hungary - probably invasive[5]
  • Romania - probably invasive[5]
  • Ukraine - invasive, in Crimea ("Helix taurica Krynicki, 1833") at least since early 19 century, probably much longer, these populations originated from Anatolia;[5] other colonies of a different lineage also appear since 2000s in mainland part of Southern Ukraine and in Crimea as well[5][8][9]
  • Czech Republic - invasive, since 2009, as of 2011 the only locality is Prague-Žižkov[4][10]
  • Slovakia - invasive, since 2013, as of 2014 the only locality is in Bratislava[11]
  • France - invasive
  • Great Britain - invasive, since 2009, at Wimbledon[12]

Ecology

The diameter of the egg is 4.4 mm.[13] Juvenile snails that are two to three months old weigh 0.5-0.9 g.[3]

Human use

Helix lucorum is used in cuisine as escargots.

Helix lucorum (raw)
Helix lucorum served as escargots
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy95 kcal (400 kJ)
0 g
Sugars0 g
Dietary fiber0 g
1.59 g
Saturated0 g
Trans0 g
19.05 g
VitaminsQuantity %DV†
Vitamin A equiv.
0%
0 μg
Vitamin C
0%
0 mg
MineralsQuantity %DV†
Calcium
16%
159 mg
Iron
18%
2.29 mg
Sodium
7%
103 mg
Other constituentsQuantity
Cholesterol206 mg
Full Link to USDA Database entry
†Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.

References
  1. http://www.fauna-eu.org/cdm_dataportal/taxon/24610e8f-4bba-40a1-a1c3-6d46ff884803#page-toc cited 3 December 2015
  2. MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Helix lucorum Linnaeus, 1758. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1050278 on 2020-05-02
  3. Danilova A.B. & Grinkevich L. N. (2012). "Failure of Long-Term Memory Formation in Juvenile Snails Is Determined by Acetylation Status of Histone H3 and Can Be Improved by NaB Treatment". PLoS ONE 7(7): e41828. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0041828.
  4. (in Czech) Horsák M., Juřičková L., Beran L., Čejka T. & Dvořák L. (2010). "Komentovaný seznam měkkýšů zjištěných ve volné přírodě České a Slovenské republiky. [Annotated list of mollusc species recorded outdoors in the Czech and Slovak Republics]". Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, Suppl. 1: 1-37. PDF.
  5. Korábek O., Juřičková L., Balashov I., Petrusek A. The contribution of ancient and modern anthropogenic introductions to the colonization of Europe by the land snail Helix lucorum Linnaeus, 1758 (Helicidae) // Contributions to Zoology. — 2018. — 87 (2). — P. 61—74.
  6. Mumladze L. (2013). "Shell size differences in Helix lucorum Linnaeus, 1758 (Mollusca: Gastropoda) between natural and urban environments". Turkish Journal of Zoology 37: 1-6.
  7. Commonwealth of Australia (2002 April). "Citrus Imports from the Arab Republic of Egypt. A Review Under Existing Import Conditions for Citrus from Israel Archived 2009-01-09 at the Wayback Machine". Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australia. Caption: Gastropods, page 12 and Appendix 2.
  8. Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. (2012). "An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine". Journal of Conchology 41(1): 91-109.
  9. Balashov I.A., Kramarenko S.S., Zhukov A.V., Shklyaruk A.N., Baidashnikov A.A., Vasyliuk A.V. 2013. Contribution to the knowledge of terrestrial molluscs in southeastern Ukraine. Malacologica Bohemoslovaca. 12: 62–69.
  10. Peltanová A., Petrusek A., Kment P. & Juřičková L. (2011). "A fast snail's pace: colonization of Central Europe by Mediterranean gastropods". Biological Invasions 14(4): 759-764. doi:10.1007/s10530-011-0121-9.
  11. Čejka T. & Čačaný J. (2014). "The first record of the Turkish snail (Helix lucorum L., 1758) in the Slovak Republic". Malacologica Bohemoslovaca 13: 124–125. PDF.
  12. Palmer, P. (2010). "Helix lucorum in Wimbledon, S.W. London". Mollusc World. 23: 12.
  13. Heller J.: Life History Strategies. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, ISBN 0-85199-318-4. 1-146, cited page: 428.
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