Snails in February... a report back.

In solidarity with aspiring snail-hunters I went for a wander around campus yesterday. I've got some observations you might find helpful.

Winter snail hunting is cold and it makes your hands cold and filthy and damp. Clearly you can't wear woolly gloves or you'd ruin them. But if you're feeling particularly delicate you might want to wear some lab gloves. I didn't wear any, but I might have felt slightly less apprehensive about the random slimy touch of cold slugs if I had. You're going to have to poke about through a lot of mud and gack.

In fact, the best thing you could have with you is a good stout stick - perfect for raking through muddy leaf litter and stirring up the dirt. I couldn't seem to find one, which meant I was at the mercy of spiky brambles, bits of glass and other unknowable debris.

Also you want a bag full of pots (for shells that you find in each location) and some sealable plastic bags (for handfuls of leaf litter that you can search through later). And a pen to label those things with your location. I've got plenty of pots you can borrow.

It'd help if your bag is waterproof so you can abandon it anywhere while you search - everywhere at the moment is damp. I've got a rather strange plastic box with a shoulder strap which is rather good (plus it's unsquashable so samples survive). You're inevitably going to have to put your knee on the floor, so something waterproof to kneel on is good. I mean you could wear waterproof trousers, but you're going to look odd enough as it is, so I'll leave that decision up to you.

CC image by Colin Smith

So I searched in the vegetation around the ponds by hand (difficult, and no luck) and I also hunted amongst leaf litter (productive) and amongst moss and around tree roots. I wandered down to the 'suds system' valley with the ditchy stream in the bottom - that's got a lot of long dryish tufty grass to stir through, and then there's piles of half-rotting vegetation by the stream itself. I know. I make it sound so glamorous and romantic. But I did find a few down there as well.

I think it may not be the easiest season in which to look. But there's certainly plenty out there and you will find decent empty shells as well as hibernating and lively snails. I brought my finds back to the lab. I thought I could easily pour some boiling water on the live ones to see how difficult it would be to extract them from their shells. It turns out I'm far to soft for that. Especially once they stuck out their cute little eye tentacles. There was no chance after that. But if you're as soft as me, I am confident you will still find enough vacated shells to produce a decent collection. Just make sure they're in good condition or you will confuse yourself (it's not helpful if they lack the mouth lip or shiny surface or even hairs that they should have... take it from me).

CC image by Santeri Viinamäki

You will need to measure the shells' widths and heights. For that a pair of vernier callipers is good - I've got some you can borrow so please ask. Also, it helps a lot if you can draw your snail, as it makes you realise how tight or loose the whorls are, and helps you concentrate on the shape of the mouth and relative pointiness of the spire, which are important identifying features. This is not easy if you're squinting at it through a handlens whilst trying to hold it. So I do recommend steadying your shell on a bit of bluetac. I had mine under a dissecting microscope (something you are welcome to come and use) and this was great. Other than one thing: the magnification makes little features like ridges seem so obvious that you wonder whether you're interpreting the key correctly. That's my only reservation.

I used a combination of keys - the Bristol key is pretty good but it's not got much detail, so where there are similar species you can't feel confident which one is correct (plus I noticed a problem for unstripey Cepeas). So Cameron's key was of most use. Plus I did look at the drawings in Kerney and Cameron and I should look at some of the photographic resources online (like AnimalBase).  I think sometimes the proportions of the shells are really important, and maybe that's something that's easier to "feel" with a photo than try to rationalise. That doesn't sound very scientific. But perhaps it's a good step on the way to Recognising your species - an expert identifier's brain puts together lots of clues at the same time. Yes I'm trying to get you to use keys, because without an expert explainer on hand to guide your every step this is definitely the way to start - it'll focus you in on what the important defining features are of each species. I realise someone who Knows Their Snails isn't often likely to be working through a key in their head, it's more about pattern recognition. But the whole Keys thing is probably a subject for another day. Meanwhile, back to the snails.