--- title: Unusual pets: stick insects, giant snails, ant farms and hermit crabs — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Unusual pets: stick insects, giant snails, ant farms and hermit crabs», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Not every pet has fur. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Unusual pets: stick insects, giant sna… # Unusual pets: stick insects, giant snails, ant farms and hermit crabs Lesson 330 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 20 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/0/) — Not every pet has fur. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/1/) — Stick insects, giant snails, ants and hermit crabs live in tanks and jars, and each one is a small window into how animals survive. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/2/) — A stick insect sways like a twig in the wind and drops to the floor stiff as a stick when touched. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/3/) — A giant snail rasps through cucumber with a tongue of thousands of tiny teeth. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/4/) — Ants carry their dead to a far corner to keep germs away. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/5/) — Picture a beach where hermit crabs line up by size beside one big empty shell. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/6/) — The biggest crab moves in, the next takes its old shell, and so on down the queue, like families moving into bigger houses one after another. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/7/) — These pets come with one rule: never let them go outside. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/8/) — Released pets can die or become pests, and many pests around the world began as someone's unwanted pet. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/9/) — Stick insects rock like twigs in the wind so hunters ignore them, they eat leaves such as bramble or privet, and many pet stick insects lay eggs that hatch without a father. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/10/) — A stick insect has six legs, like every insect, and can drop a leg if grabbed; a young one can grow it back, often smaller, when it next sheds its skin, but grown-ups no longer shed. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/11/) — A stick insect that falls and lies stiff is playing dead so a hunter loses interest, and some stick insects are among the longest insects in the world, over half a metre with legs out. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/13/) — Snails have a ribbon-shaped tongue covered in thousands of tiny teeth that wear down and are replaced by new rows, and some snails have over 10,000 teeth. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/14/) — An ant colony needs a queen to lay eggs or it slowly dies out, and ants from shops without a queen last only a few months. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/15/) — Dead ants give off a smell that tells others to carry them out, which keeps germs away from the nest; scientists dabbed that smell on living ants and their sisters carried them out too. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/16/) — Hermit crabs have soft back ends and borrow empty snail shells, so as they grow a tank needs spare shells, and painted shells sold in shops can harm crabs. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/17/) — Wild hermit crabs sometimes queue by size and swap shells one after another, each moving into the shell left by the next biggest; scientists call this a vacancy chain. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/18/) — A hermit crab has ten legs, but the back ones are small and hidden inside the shell to hold on, so only six are easy to see. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/19/) — Hermit crabs need damp air and company because they live in groups, and with good care some are reported to live over 20 years. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/20/) — Pets let go can die or become pests that harm wild animals, and rescue centres and pet shops can take unwanted pets back. - ← previous: [Tortoises, lizards and geckos as pets: heat, light and washing hands](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/329-tortoises-lizards-and-geckos-as-pets-heat-light-and-washing-hands/) - next →: [Foods that are dangerous for pets: chocolate, grapes, onions and lilies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/331-foods-that-are-dangerous-for-pets-chocolate-grapes-onions-and-lilies/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)