Land Snails of Cyprus
Hidden in stone walls, sheltering under the bark of olive trees, and spiralling patiently across the morning earth – Cyprus is home to well over 120 species of land snail, a quarter of which exist nowhere else on the planet. This is their story. Unhurried, Unnoticed, Unmistakable Walk out into a Cypriot garden after a winter rain and you will find them everywhere – clinging to walls, crossing paths with studied deliberation, leaving gleaming silver threads across the stone. Land snails are among the oldest and most quietly successful inhabitants of this island, and yet most people walk past them without a second glance. That, it turns out, is a serious mistake. Cyprus is home to a remarkable diversity of land snails, with species found nowhere else on Earth. Some are the size of your thumbnail; some could fill a teacup. Some have towers twisted like little pagodas; others are as flat and white as a communion wafer. They have fed people here for ten thousand years, inspired ancient mythology, and are, in the eyes of many biologists, one of the best examples of island evolution in the entire Mediterranean. And yet their story is almost entirely untold. Carrying Their World on Their Backs Land snails are molluscs – the same broad animal group that includes octopus, clams, and oysters.…
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