What’s going on out on the land?
Differentiating between Cepaea nemoralis and Cepaea hortensis
Snails have captured my attention lately and I am getting more and more curious as time goes on.
It isn’t like my curiosity has suddenly been triggered, but rather, it has grown over the past year or so. This curiosity and interest tends to fall back to one or two specific species which I encounter most often. They are the common species in my area of Southern Ontario in the Cepaea genus, Cepaea hortensis and Cepaea nemoralis. But how do you tell them apart?
There is one way to know, but it can be a bit tricky.
Snail trails on Birch
A lot of questions arise while looking at Snail feeding sign on a Birch tree at the Guelph Arboretum. Why Birch? Are they eating? How are they eating? What is the direction of travel?
Sometimes the answers are out there, and it’s just about looking a little deeper to figure it out.