The snail’s foot is highly muscular and adapted for travelling over hard surfaces. It has a large flat foot which remains attached to the surfaces over which it is crawling due to the adhesive properties of slime (mucus). To prevent damage to the softer tissues of the snail’s foot, it secretes slime and a continuous trail of slime is laid down often seen as ‘snail trails’. This is secreted from glands under the mouth.

A number of species of snails found at Killarney in SE Queensland. The carnivorous snail with the long neck in the centre of the photo will use the slime trails to track and catch the other species.

Snails and slugs use waves of muscular contractions to move.