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  Profile

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  In flight

Slow & Steady

Cuban Painted Snail

Polymita picta

• mythic
• 2 km/h
• Not Evaluated

Each shell is hand-painted by genetics — no two alike. Slow courier, but the most beautiful in the catalog.

Population

No global population figure exists; exact numbers are unknown even to researchers (National Geographic notes a biologist spending a full day to find a single specimen), with populations reported in sharp decline across eastern Cuba due to overcollection for the shell/jewelry trade

Habitat

Arboreal — lives on bark and leaves of trees and shrubs in a thin coastal subtropical forest/vegetation belt in eastern Cuba, favoring species such as Bursera simaruba, Chrysobalanus icaco, and Metopium toxiferum

Fun fact

The Cuban painted snail's shell displays such extreme color and pattern polymorphism — from pastel yellow-and-white banding to brick-red-and-black variants — that no two individuals look quite alike, making it one of the most visually striking land snails in the world; it is protected under CITES Appendix I and Cuba's own critically-endangered national listing, even though it has never received a formal global IUCN Red List assessment.

Range

Endemic to a narrow, fragmented coastal strip of eastern Cuba (Oriente region), including areas within Alexander von Humboldt National Park

Diet

Grazes on lichens, mosses, and fungal biofilms on bark and leaves; dietary minerals/pigments are believed to influence shell coloration

Size

0.025 m

Lifespan

1.5 years