The Short-toothed Herald Snail is a tiny animal with a big name. More...

At only 1.5mm long the Short-toothed Herald Snail, Carychium minimum, is arguably Leicestershire’s smallest snail (though there are one or two others of similar size). It lives in wetlands and damp woodlands and was regularly recorded in the 1980’s across the whole of the county. But since 1989 there have been no further sightings ... until now! The small size probably has a lot to do with this as it remains a reasonably common snail across the UK. The recent find, made by David Nicholls, was at the relatively new storm retention area by the A50 in Glenfield, where good numbers were found attached to old Typha stems in the marshy bottom. The growing number of these type of storm water storage sites are creating valuable new wetland habitat and are well worth exploring. This one has even been set up as a Wild Place and is being considered for Local Wildlife Site designation.