Pulmonata
![](/Images/godic/202502/05/Pulmonata_various_examples_34005.jpg")
![Shells of pulmonate styllomatophoran snails in a museum collection](/Images/godic/202502/05/Museum_fg024005.jpg")
![An artistic but scientifically incorrect version of various European land snails and slugs (one species here is not a pulmonate), their food plants and fungi, and a beetle that eats mollusks, bottom right.](/Images/godic/202502/05/Pulmonata4005.jpg")
![Examples of Pulmonata: Achatina fulica top right, Bielzia coerulans top left, Praticolella berlandieriana center right, Megalobulimus oblongus in the center, Euglandina rosea center left, Helix pomatia bottom right & Ashmunella levettei bottom left](/Images/godic/202502/05/Sigmurethra_various_examples_14005.jpg")
The Pulmonata, or "pulmonates", are an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includes many land and freshwater families, and several marine families.