CreatureData

Rice snail

Margarya chinensis (J. E. Gray, 1833)

Status not recordedsnails and slugs

The rice snail (Margarya chinensis) is a species in the family Viviparidae, order Architaenioglossa.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the rice snail

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the rice snail live?

Not recorded

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the rice snail as introduced in 4 countries, and flagged as invasive in 2 of them.

  1. Canadainvasive
  2. Indonesiainvasive
  3. Belgium
  4. United States

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the rice snail endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the rice snail classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumMollusca
  3. classGastropoda
  4. orderArchitaenioglossa
  5. familyViviparidae
  6. genusMargarya
  7. SpeciesMargarya chinensis (J. E. Gray, 1833)

Synonyms Bellamya chinensis, Cipangopaludina chinensis, Cipangopaludina hehuensis, Cipangopaludina leucythoides, Paludina chinensis, Paludina diminuta, Paludina laeta, Paludina leucostoma, Vivipara chinensis, Vivipara chinensis var. diminuta, Viviparus chinensis

Other names and names in other languages (14)
  • Asian apple snailEnglish
  • Black snailEnglish
  • Chinese mystery snailEnglish
  • Chinese viviparaEnglish
  • Japanese mystery snailEnglish
  • Oriental mystery snailEnglish
  • Trapdoor snailEnglish
  • Vivipare chinoiseFrench
  • シナタニシJapanese
  • 논우렁이Korean
  • Chinese moerasslakDutch
  • Ципангопалюдина китайскаяRussian
  • 中國螺螄Chinese
  • 긴논우렁이Korean

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the rice snail

Other species in the same genus Margarya.

CompareRice snail vs Cipangopaludina ampulliformisRice snail vs Cipangopaludina compactusRice snail vs Cipangopaludina crassibucaRice snail vs Cipangopaludina formosensis

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Is the rice snail an invasive species?

In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the rice snail as invasive in 2 countries: Canada and Indonesia. It lists it as introduced in 4 in all.

What kind of animal is the rice snail?

The rice snail (Margarya chinensis) belongs to the family Viviparidae in the order Architaenioglossa.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Rice snail (Margarya chinensis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/rice-snail

MLA

“Rice snail (Margarya chinensis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/rice-snail.

BibTeX
@misc{rice_snail_2026,
  title = {Rice snail (Margarya chinensis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/rice-snail},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}