Brown Garden Snail Cornu aspersum
The Brown Garden Snail is edible. It is sold as escargot, the name used for many edible snails. The Brown Garden Snail is the second best choice for gourmet use. The number one snail for kitchen use is the Roman Snail, which has a lighter colour and is slightly bigger than the Brown Garden Snail. The Roman Snail usually lives in warmer climates than the Brown Garden Snail, which is not choosy at all. The species has been taken by men on his journeys and can now be found all over the world. It turned out to be a pest especially in Australia and California. The Roman Snail can live up to 30 years (at least in captivity). The shell of the animal in the 2nd picture from the top resembles that of a Roman Snail, but according to expert Jan Hein Visser it actually is just a worn out shell of the Brown Garden Snail.
In the top picture a beautiful fresh animal. In the second picture a worn out much older animal. Nex a couple of mating Brown garden snails. You can see there are two males mating. Or are it two females? Next an egg laying animal. In the bottom pictures a very young and still entirely brown animal.
The Brown Garden Snail used to be called Helix aspersa scientifically.
