Snail and shell identifier
The shell you brought back from the beach has a name. You just have to ask.
Molluscs let themselves be photographed without fleeing — the easiest group to capture cleanly, and yet one of the least often identified. A garden snail, a slug after rain, an empty shell: each has its species and its card.
How do you identify a snail or a shell?
Molluscs are the easiest group to photograph cleanly: they do not flee, and an empty shell poses indefinitely. They are also among the least often identified, for lack of a readable popular guide. Image identification leans on shell shape, the number and direction of whorls, surface sculpture and colour — stable criteria, unlike those of mobile groups. For a shell, the best view is the aperture facing the lens, on a plain background. For a live snail, a three-quarter view showing both shell and foot. SafaRoll covers 32 molluscs in the catalogue.
- 01.
After rain, on a snail out on the wall.
- 02.
On the beach, on a shell you picked up.
- 03.
In the vegetable patch, to learn who is eating the lettuces.
32 species · molluscs
Commonest firstGarden Snail
Cornu aspersum
Brown-lipped Snail
Cepaea nemoralis
Leopard Slug
Limax maximus
Roman Snail
Helix pomatia
Pacific Banana Slug
Ariolimax columbianus
African Giant Snail
Lissachatina fulica
California Mussel
Mytilus californianus
White-lipped Snail
Cepaea hortensis
Milk Snail
Otala lactea
Common Periwinkle
Littorina littorea
Yellow Cellar Slug
Limacus flavus
Eastern Oyster
Crassostrea virginica
Ash-black Slug
Limax cinereoniger
Pacific Oyster
Magallana gigas
Chocolate-band Snail
Eobania vermiculata
Blue Mussel
Mytilus edulis
Zebra Mussel
Dreissena polymorpha
Turkish Snail
Helix lucorum
Atlantic Ribbed Mussel
Geukensia demissa
Green Ormer
Haliotis tuberculata
Tiger Cowrie
Cypraea tigris
Great Scallop
Pecten maximus
Mimic Octopus
Thaumoctopus mimicus
European Common Cuttlefish
Sepia officinalis
Common Octopus
Octopus vulgaris
Northern Quahog
Mercenaria mercenaria
Rosy Wolfsnail
Euglandina rosea
Japanese Littleneck
Ruditapes philippinarum
Day Octopus
Octopus cyanea
Common Sydney Octopus
Octopus tetricus
Depilatory Seahare
Aplysia depilans
Emperor Nautilus
Nautilus pompilius
What people often ask
Yes, and often better than a live animal: the shell carries most of the criteria, and it does not move. Set it on a plain background, aperture towards the lens.
Identify molluscs from one photo.
SafaRoll names the species in a second and turns it into a collectible card. Free, unlimited identification, no ads.
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