The track in this picture, taken after a rain shower had left clear a portion of pavement (in American, sidewalk) where something had been parked on top of it, makes it seem as if the snail must have hopped. In fact, snails have a single long, muscular foot that pushes them along on a layer of slime that they secrete. They flex and then relax the foot muscles, creating a wave that moves faster than the snail itself and so provides the motive force to drive it along something like a caterpillar – hence the nature of this track. Research by Janice Lai et al published in October 2010 showed that the sticky slime isn’t needed on horizontal surfaces, and mentioned potential applications in research fields where some are developing snail-like robots. (Data source: Stanford Report 6 April 2011)

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