Land snails are simply any member of the gastropod class (snails and slugs) that lives on the terrestrial environment (as opposed to freshwater or marine gastropods). They are members of the larger mollusk phylum.
Land snails have shells and a large muscular foot that they use for propulsion. The create a mucus that protects them from drying out and assists in locomotion. They have visual organs (black dots in the above photo) on their upper set of tentacles and olfactory organs on their lower tentacles.
Land snails have primitive brains, breath using lungs and are hermaphroditic (each snail has both sex organs). They eat using a radula -- a "tongue-like" structure covered with microscopic teeth. The mouth of the snail is located just behind the front of the foot. They are mainly herbivorous.
There are many species of land snails in the Northeast. It takes an expert to determine the exact species.
