NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 232 May 1977 Page 3 
HELIX ASPERSA, PORTRAIT OF A COLONIZER 
by 
Ze'ev Bar 
Kibbutz Bet Ha'Emeq, 25 115, Israel 
Tristram (1865) relates that "Helix aspersa is very common in the 
gardens of Tyre, Sidon, Beyrout, Jaffa, and all places on the coast" 
and that “it is collected and sold in the markets for food." This 
association of H. aspersa with human activities characterizes the 
dispersal and distribution pattern of this large land snail through- 
out most of its present existence in the world. Helix (Cryptom- 
phalus) aspersa Muller, 1774 was once a native of the neleaaoeen 
coastal areas. Zilch (1959/60) mentions it from the Upper Pliocene 
in Italy and subsequently Sicily and Algeria. 
From the western Mediterranean the snail has, since early times, 
been dispersed by human activity, partly on purpose for human con- 
sumption, and partly inadvertently with garden plants and vegeta- 
bles. Its present distribution is practically cosmopolitan though 
limited to human environments. 
Human consumption. Since prehistory man learned that some large 
Species of land snails are at times easily collected and can be a 
tasty seasonal variety in the diet. Wildhaber (1950) considers 
H. aspersa "the most important edible snail in the Mediterranean 
and Western Europe (Spain, southern France, Italy)." Boekschoten 
(1962) recalls that in Crete Helix aspersa and other land snails 
are collected by the shepherds and sold as cheap protein food to 
the inhabitants who rarely can afford meat or eggs. "The collecting 
is done mostly in the evening, because at this time the snails leave 
their hideouts from the sun. Especially during the Lent the dark 
slopes of the lowland hills are enlivened by the wandering lights of 
the snail collectors." In Spain, H. aspersa is highly valued as a 
delicatesse and consumed in large numbers (Alvarez, 1969). Taylor 
(1910) mentions a special snail market in Valencia, "where the women, 
who are called 'Caraooplas,' congregate in the open market square 
with heaped-up baskets of snails, loudly crying their wares, and oc- 
casionally cracking a shell with their teeth to show the quality." 
Recently, large quantities have been exported from Turkey to France 
(Nawratil, 1969). 
Intentional human transport. The Romans were, no doubt, among the 
first transporters of Helix sees Snails were considered impor- 
tant food, and both Pliny and Varro describe how they were grown on 
ranches where they were fed special foods like bay, wine and spicy 
soups to preseason them. The most esteemed species was the very 
large "Roman Snail" (Helix pomatia L.) from the limestone hills of 
southeastern Europe (Floericke, 7920) but Helix aspersa was a good 
second. Thus the earliest appearance of both these species in 
Germany and England was associated with Roman settlements (ADtsa2e. 1s 
Falkner, 1969; Evans, 1972 and Kerney, 1966). 
Another wave of human intentional transport occurred during the 
Middle Ages when these large edible land snails became a popular 
substitute for meat during the fast in Catholic Europe. Floericke 
(1920) relates that in the northern plains of Germany, isolated pop- 
ulations of H. pomatia can be found, usually at sites of early large 


