Cipangopaludina Snail

Cipangopaludiana japonica? snail found in the Potomac River outside of Washington, D.C. It is not a native species of the United States but found its way here from Asia. I have posted about this snail before but those were found in the White River of Indianapolis, Indiana. See that entry from November 15, 2010. The specimen was cleaned up and I posted it on April 2, 2011, see post here.

I wonder if this snail is edible. There is a show on Korean television (KBS) called Screening Humanity. They profile different households around Korea every week. One older couple who lived in the countryside was shown preparing marsh snail soup. It looks like the snails are soaked in clean water and then boiled later. A needle is then used to extract the snail out of the shell. I am not sure what is next in the recipe as they did not show that part on the show.

The two specimens shown in this posting have been cleaned.

Thanks to Kenny for specimens.

Smaller specimen shown.