As the Northwest Times (Quest Newspapers) writes, ‘Life at a Snail’s pace might sound dull but the slow moving molluscs have lead one Albany Creek researcher on adventures more suited to an Indiana Jones movie than a lab‘.

At the Bush Blitz trip to Quinkan in far north Queensland, two new snail species were discovered but not before the Snail Whisperer suffered a tarantula bite. One species, a carnivorous snail, is separated from its closest relative at the Undara lava fields by 250km. The dry sandstone escarpments of this area are an unlikely environment for snails but the pockets of rainforest in this area showed that these animals representing 6% of terrestrial biodiversity, endure in even the smallest patches.

Conserving even small patches of vine thickets and rainforest is crucial to the survival of invertebrates.

Thanks to two avid Griffith Uni students, we have more photos of snails dining out in style. Here Fraser’s Banded Snail (Sphaerospira fraseri) eats its way through a fungi at Mt Glorious. Photos: Ben Revell and Kris Oettinger.