![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGIh-N8UkNRxA-LhUGEPJYTHvmAbSQUxg9ggtDGc5kOI8Yd8EiQ3y7aX3WvwgPsYYCTteODhZnx3ATQIX2WtawH2VtkBua_f0aHxyQH5GJpw7GhXt836Lpi6iyRgaYwnCUAiNnP5X2k58/s400/snail1IMGP1196_edited-1.jpg)
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A few days ago Ron Bloomquist published at interesting photo of a ‘hiccuping’ intermittent snail trail on his Walking Fort Bragg blog, and was wondering how it might have come about (see http://walkingfortbragg.com/2009/07/so-how-foggy-was-it.html) .This snail wandered across my path today and this series of photos shows quite nicely how hit moves, with a head-to-tail wave of muscular contraction along its foot which is slightly arched – check out the way the gap under its foot moves backwards as the snail moves forwards in this top-to-bottom sequence (double-click the images for a larger, clearer view). It occurs to me that if the snail was crawling along a hot road surface and wanted to minimise the exposure of its foot to the heat it might well arch its foot even more, and might leave a trail like the one Ron saw...........just a thought.