Nijmegen, Netherlands

The word small is a common name that is used for almost all members of the molluscan class Gastropoda which have coiled shells in the adult stage. (Those snails which do not have a shell or only a very small shell are usually called slugs.)

The class of Gastropoda (the snails and slugs) is second only to the insects in terms of total number of species. Snails are extraordinarily diverse in habitat, form, behavior, and anatomy, and therefore what is true of one snail species may not at all be true of another.