Helicella itala is a species of medium-sized, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Geomitridae, the hairy snails and their allies.

shell is broad and very depressed with an open coil forming a convex, low spire.

The shell often (but not always) has dark brown or yellow-brown spiral bands, and the surface has fine irregular growth ridges.

The common heath snail is a West Palearctic species which is found in the British Isles, France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland.

The animals live on dry, exposed habitats, such as roadsides and railway embankments, vegetated sand dunes as well as rock boulders and short grassland.