The Lyons Share

As a child, every Christmas, I would flick through the Argos catalogue dreaming about which Transformers I would get. As an adult, I flick through natural history books, dreaming about when I will see this species or that. Seriously though, there is a great benefit to this. If you read around the subject and gen up, just sometimes, you will recognise species before you have ever seen them. 

I've been looking for this rather large, flattened snail for a while since I acquired the FSC land snail key a few years back. Considering how much time I spend on the chalk, I'm surprised it took this long. Anyway, last night (whilst looking for something completely different) with Michael Blencowe and Mat Davidson, Michael found this shell. I can't tick it, as it was well dead like. It's the Heath Snail Helicella itala. I will be going back soon to look for a live one. Thanks to Michael for the photo and thanks also to Mum for getting me Optimus Prime.