"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...

Emrys asked Susie of Arran whether she had tried a night hunt for
snails eating her rhubarb. No need; snail populations and activity are
minimal in Scotland. On the Scottish mainland (much colder than here),
I very rarely saw one, and never bigger than my little finger nail. Here
on Arran where it's mild, there are a few more, the biggest the size of
my thumbnail, with thin, striped pastel shells. Maybe I spot one of
these small pretty snails once or twice in a month.

My relatives gardens around London and the Home Counties have hundreds
of huge rapacious grey/brown snails the size of a walnut.

The question for urglers is; where does the UK's Big Rapacious Snail
zone start and finish? With global warming, are they advancing
northwards?

The big garden ones are Helix aspersa and the pretty stripey ones from sand
dunes are Cepea nemoralis.
I will see if I can find distribution maps ....
http://www.searchnbn.net/gridMap/gri...MSYS0000343142
shows Helix from a combination of sources and Scotland has a weird gap in
the middle;
Helix looks like it hates mountains? The gap in NW Ireland is partly
explicable from lack of records/sampling.
http://www.arkive.org/species/ARK/in...more_info.html
it says above they are common across lowland UK.





Janet.



--
Isle of Arran Open Gardens weekend 21,22,23 July 2006
5 UKP three-day adult ticket (funds go to island charities) buys entry
to 26 private gardens