Does your camera have a macro function? A question exclusively reserved for ocassions when pictures of EPOCH components and African snails are posted on the board.
As for the gender, there probably isn't one, I assume they are hemaphrodites, essentially they have both sets of genetalia. Any one snail will posess a 'love dart' and will make love through a hole in its foot which is also something to do with respiration. How crazy is that? I think the mating ritual, including foreplay takes about 45 minutes, longer with the African snail I would guess, let's say one hour. If the tantric, non love dart method is used, it can take anything up to four weeks.
That said, they're beautiful creatures. Just because it ain't running around at 10billion miles per hour like a cheetah or a dog or a tortoise, people disregard the snail and all its variants. Even the UK snails posess many different facets. From the pretty strawberry snails to your common garden snail with its larger brown shell, there's lots of variety.
Slugs on the other hand, I don't mind them, but they're like a snail who's had mortgage repayment problems. They're just not quite in the same league are they?
Snails also like beer, but alas will drink to complete intoxification and fall into the beer and drown. This is an exceptionally cruel way to kill a snail as is the use of slug pellets or indeed salt. This osmotic assault is barbaric in the extreme. If snails are really that much of a nuisance, put up some polite notices or have a word with the ringleader.
Snails actually lay eggs, yes eggs, tiny weeny little eggs. Baby snails are miniscule, just a couple of mm long.
It's a myth that the number of whorls on the shell is proportional to the age of the snail.