Tiny world

Garden snail hatchling

Cornu aspersum

A clutch of pearly white eggs, and a newly hatched snail with a shell so thin you can see through it.

Here it is following your pointer, drawn many times bigger than life. Find it at real size with the magnifying glass in the Tiny World.

Good to know

Three things about the baby snail

A garden snail lays around 80 round, white eggs in a small hole in damp soil.

A baby snail hatches with its shell already on. The first thing it eats is often its own eggshell, for the calcium.

The shell grows with the snail, adding a little more to the open edge all the time.

The real thing

Out and about

Look under stones, in plant pots and in loose soil in summer for a cluster of small white spheres like tiny pearls.

Lend a hand

If you uncover eggs, cover them over again. Song thrushes, hedgehogs and slow-worms all depend on snails.

Keep going

Aphids