Detailed species account on Flickr.
A PDF of the species account is available here.
Size: Up to about 21mm long. Shape: Relatively narrow girdle with the shell making up 75% of the width. Valves are rounded with a moderate keel. Shell colour: Colouration is typically from pink to dark brick red often mottled with brown or cream. Sculpture: Valve surface appears almost completely smooth (glossy) when viewed under a hand lens. Girdle: Covered by closely packed oval granules. It is typically banded pink/red and yellow/orange. Animal: Gills generally restricted to the rear of the grooves on either side of the foot (merobranch).
- Valve surface appears smooth under hand lens
- Girdle is covered with tightly packed oval granules
Occurs from low water to depths of 300m but never in high densities. It feeds by grazing material from the rock surface using its radula. Rocky bottoms but also pebbles on sand.
It occurs from the Barents and White Seas in the north, around the coasts of Norway, Sweden, Greenland and as far south as the Azores. It is found on all shores around Britain and Ireland.
The map provided here shows the distribution of the species based on Conchological Society data.
- Ávila, S , Sigwart, J 2013. New records for the shallow-water chiton fauna (Mollusca, Polyplacophora) of the Azores (NE Atlantic). Zookeys. 2013; (312): 23–38.
- Baxter, J.M. and Jones, A.M. 1987. Molluscs: Caudofoveata Solenogastres Polyplacophora and Scaphopoda. London.