How fast are snails?
There is the “snail’s pace”. A movement of a few inches per minute is common for large snails or slugs. Small relatives of the operculate genus Colobostylus can move 7 times their shell length each minute. A few larger land snails “lope” or “gallop” by creating extraordinarily large locomotor waves in the foot. The speed of the European garden snail, Helix aspersa, is dependent on the surface on which it moves. The average speeds for movement on a paper towel is 6 1/3 cm/min, on a glass plate 8 1/3 cm/min, and on a formica surface 17 1/3 cm/min.
