We had just about finished up at Strollamus when Steve strolled up carrying a large Pecten maximus shell. “Isn’t this a nudibranch here?” Yes, nestling in one of the grooves there was a specimen of Facelina bostoniensis looking somewhat bedraggled with all its cerata collapsed in a heap. “Isn’t that Raphitoma purpurea said someone ……… Only then did someone else point out the juvenile Chlamys nivea attached.
The shell was heavily colonised with the serpulid Pomatoceros, there were some algae attached and the interior contained muddy sediments. We decided to take it back to see how many species we could retrieve from a thorough examination and a washing of the weed and muds. And so it was that we recorded the following species (table below), all alive and many as juveniles, from this one shell. That’s 29 species including the ‘host’. Only Semierycina nitida was not recorded elsewhere on the shore. One piece of substrate and 35% of the total site list for that shore. Not bad going.
- Tectura testudinalis
- T. virginea
- Gibbula cineraria
- Onoba semicostata
- Pusillina inconspicua
- Buccinum undatum
- Raphitoma linearis
- R. purpurea
- Rissoella globularis
- Omalogyra atomus
- Ammonicerina rota
- Odostomia plicata
- O. turrita
- O. unidentata
- Retusa truncatula
- Facelina bostoniensis
- Mytilus edulis
- Modiolarca tumida
- Chlamys nivea
- Heteranomia squamula
- Semierycina nitida
- Mysella bidentata
- Parvicardium exiguum
- P. scabrum
- Venerupis senegalensis
- Dosinia exoleta
- Turtonia minuta
- Hiatella arctica