Giant African Land Snails: Archachatina Marginata
The giant African land snail Archachatina Marginata is the largest of the Archachatina sub-species of giant land snails. This species of giant land snail can be found native to West Africa and can have a shell of up to 12-15cm in length!
The family of Archachatina Giant Snails are generally more primitive than Achatina snails and in general lay far less eggs with about a clutch of 5-10 at a time, compared to Achatina clutches of up to 500.
These snails are generally happy being kept in a temperature of around 20°C, not exceeding 29°C. They shouldn’t be placed directly in the sun due to the fact that if they get too hot they’ll die. Giant Land Snails can also sometimes be burnt easily in the sun.
In appearance, Archachatina Marginata snails have a blunt tip to their shells (characteristic to all Archachatina species), and commonly have yellow stripes to their shells. Â Their bodies tend to be dark in colour, although an albino variant is increasingly becoming more common, and they have fine textured skin. Snails are a common delicacy to people in West Africa, and the dark skinned snails are preferred over the albino ones; this is the reason for the albino variant becoming more common.
On their tails a raised ‘V’ ridge can be felt, which also confirms it as this breed. In some individuals to find this ridge you may need to wet your finger. Also in some snails it is more pronounced than others so you may not be able to find it if it is really small in that particular snail.
Like all giant land snails, Archachatina Marginata snails are hermaphrodites. This means they carry both female and male sex organs, although this does not mean they mate with themselves, two snails are still needed for mating.
May 8, 2010
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Maddia (Admin) · 
3 Comments
Tags: Animals, giant african land snails, Giant Land Snails, Pets, Snails · Posted in: Giant African Land Snail Species
3 Responses
PLEASE ALWAYS UPDATE ME ON INFORMATIONS WITH PICTURES ON ARCHACHATINA MARGINATA. INFORMATIONS ON THE HOUSING, FEEDING, BREEDING, CARING FOR HATCHLINGS AND OTHER GENERAL INFORMATION. I AM A RESOURCE PERSON ON SNAIL FARMING.
Hi Debbie, as of now we can not directly email anyone with updates on a particular animal or pet due to privacy reasons and our policy. You can ask direct questions and the replies may be emailed to you.
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housing breeding,caring for hatchlings and feeding of archachatina marginata