I had no intention of sliding down the slippery slope of snail identification but I’ve found a few in recent weeks and couldn’t not try to ID them. And then a friend, who has given up on that ‘too hard’ process, gifted me his guide book. Luckily, there is also a good ‘Slugs and Snails of the British Isles’ group of very helpful folks on Facebook, though you do have to know which bits of the snail to photograph for them to be able to help. So, these little snails are hopefully correctly identified as follows:

Smooth glass snail (Aegopinella nitidula)
Also known as the Clear glass snail or Waxy glass snail, this little land mollusc can be found munching away on plant matter all year round in gardens and hedgerows, rough grassland, waste ground and woodlands throughout much of Britain. It only grows to around 10mm so is quite little.

Rounded snail (Discus rotundatus)
At between 5 and 7mm across, the Rounded or Discus snail (I think that second name suits it very well) is also rather small. Its shell is quite flat but tightly coiled, with up to 6 whorls, and its upper surface is densely ribbed. It’s another very common snail (I obviously haven’t been looking very hard as this was my first sighting) and is especially partial to sheltered damp spots under logs, amongst leaf litter, beneath stones and rubble. Apparently it feeds on detritus (I’m never quite sure what that means!) and fungi.

Kentish snail (Monacha cantiana)
It may be named the Kentish snail but this is actually an introduced species. According to the German website Animal Base, it was ‘introduced to Great Britain with farmers in late Roman times and spread mainly in the mediaeval period, occupying a compact area covering S and E England, and still continues spreading (isolated sites in Wales, W central England and Scotland)’. The slight hairiness of my little friend (see photo above right) is because it’s a juvenile – those hairs will rub off as it grows to its full size of around 16mm.