Waiter, there's a snail in my paella

While spending a few days in València, Spain, I was surprised at the general lack of snails and slugs even in the grassiest of places along the riverbanks. A cursory search in the huge public park resulted in the finding of just three Cochlicella barbara (L., 1758) specimens on a nightly 'romp', but then, the well-maintained and intensely cultivated area was perhaps not the optimum environment for worthwhile molluscan discoveries.

Part of Valencia from above

The Valencians have many exquisite traditional dishes, frequently making ample use of seafood and landsnails. In a particular market, I was surprised to see that three species of the latter are farmed and packaged separately for consumption. These are Theba pisana (Müller, 1774), Otala punctata (Müller, 1774) and Cantareus aspersus (Müller, 1774) (pictured beneath in respective order). All three species are also present in Malta, yet here only the latter is consumed.

I later found a sub-adult Otala punctata in my Valencian paella take-away.