| Taxon | Helix lucorum |
|---|---|
| Authority | Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Synonyms |
|
| Display parents | 3 |
Helix lucorum, known commonly as the Turkish Snail[1], is a species of large, edible, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicidae, the typical snails.[2]
Description
Adult snails weigh about 20–25 g.[3]
The width of the shell is 35–60 mm.[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 the Caucasus, Anatolia and, arguably, the Balkans. It has also invaded many other regions since ancient times, likely assisted by humans.[5]
Eastern native range with main genetic diversity of the species:
Balkans:
Other countries:
- Israel[7]
- Syria
- China - invasive
- 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
Measurement of DNA damage in H. lucorum collected from environmental sites can be used for evaluating soil pollution at these sites.[14] DNA damage in H. lucorum haemocytes and digestive gland cells is determined by the comet assay.
Helix lucorum is used in cuisine as escargots.
| Cholesterol | 206 mg |
|---|---|
| Kcal | 95 |
| Sugars | 0 g |
| Protein | 19.05 g |
| Fat | 1.59 g |
| Satfat | 0 g |
| Transfat | 0 g |
| Carbs | 0 g |
| Fiber | 0 g |
| Calcium mg | 159 |
| Iron mg | 2.29 |
| Sodium mg | 103 |
| Vitc mg | 0 |
| Vita ug | 0 |
| Note | Full Link to USDA Database entry[dead link] |
| Float | right |
References
- ^ Mienis, Henk & Rittner, Oz. (2010). On the presence of Helix lucorum Linnaeus, 1758 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Helicidae) in Le Vesinet, a western suburb of Paris.. MalaCo. 6. 266-267.
- ^ "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Out of scope". marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2025-05-26.
- ^ 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.
- ^ (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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. (2012). "An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine". Journal of Conchology 41(1): 91-109.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Palmer, P. (2010). "Helix lucorum in Wimbledon, S.W. London". Mollusc World. 23: 12.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Sargsyan A, Hovhannisyan G, Simonyan A, Arakelyan M, Arzumanyan M, Aroutiounian R. Application of land snail Helix lucorum for evaluation of genotoxicity of soil pollution. Mutat Res Genet Toxicol Environ Mutagen. 2022 Jun;878:503500. doi: 10.1016/j.mrgentox.2022.503500. Epub 2022 May 6. PMID 35649673