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I have many snails, but I don't know how to differentiate between the males and females. Someone once told me there is no male or female; that all of them lay eggs.

Is this true, and if not, how do I differentiate by gender?

2 Answers 2

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Snails are hermaphrodite:

Don’t waste your time trying to tell the males and females apart. This is because snails are hermaphrodites, meaning that they have the reproductive organs of both sexes on them, therefore they are able to produce both sperm and eggs. When they are mating they will both conceive and lay eggs.

source: http://www.snail-world.com/#Hermaphrodites

So, if you have snails and want to know who is who when they are mating, you´ll find out that both are playing male and female role at same time.

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  • 1
    Not all snail are hermaphrodites
    – Rémi
    Dec 18, 2015 at 14:23
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the majority of land snails are hermaphrodite (have a full set of organs of both sexes)

Wikipedia land snails

So unless you name a specific exceptional snail, there are no features to determine the gender.