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      • Current part: 45 (3), 2025
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      • Issue 1
        • Collecting East African marine snails
        • Field meeting to Box Hill
        • Introduction
        • Oyster Catchers feeding on Patella vulgata
      • Issue 2
        • Collecting localities in the Cape Province
        • Field meeting Walton-on-Naze
        • Herons, Moorhens and Rats feeding on Anodonta anatina
        • Introduction to molluscan taxonomy 1) Species and subspecies
        • Volutes
      • Issue 3
        • Introduction to molluscan taxonomy 2) The significance of types
        • Land and freshwater snails: additions to the British List since 1926
        • Littoral collecting in the Scilly Isles
        • Snails in a Sussex garden
      • Issue 4
        • Biographical Note
        • Introduction to molluscan taxonomy 3) The genus
        • Learning in Nucella lapillus
        • Mollusca on Liverpool bomb sites
        • The Cardiacea
        • The Strombidae
      • Issue 5
        • A suggested method for extracting the animals from small high-spired shells
        • Commensual crabs in Mytilus edulis
        • Field meeting at Shell Bay, Dorset
        • Field meeting at West Runton and Overstrand
        • Introduction to molluscan taxonomy 4) Taxonomic history
        • J.G. Bruguiere 1750-98
      • Issue 6
        • A little more biography
        • Field meeting at Amberley
        • Field meeting to Grasswood, Yorkshire May 1962
        • Marine collecting in New Zealand
        • Marine mollusca of Carnac, Brittany
        • On the use and misuse of common names
        • Strand shells after Cornish gales
        • Trochus magus in the Isle of Wight
      • Issue 7
        • 35 years collecting
        • Field meeting Epping Forest
        • Field meeting White Downs
        • More strand shells after Cornish gales
        • Natural History Museum at Craster
        • Notes on the pholadidae
      • Issue 8
        • Field meeting at Norwich
        • Geology for conchologists - Introduction
        • Geology for conchologists - The last 15,000 years
        • The Strophocheilidae
      • Issue 9
        • More autobiography
        • Sinistrorsity
        • Some etymology
        • Systematics sewn up
      • Issue 10
        • Field meeting at Norbury Park
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      • Issue 11
        • David Landsborough
        • Field meeting at Albury
        • Field meeting at Leith Hill
        • Posting living mollusca
        • Snails extinct in England but living abroad
        • Still more autobiography
        • The Viviparidae
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Spisula subtruncata

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

CommonDistributed from the Norwegian Sea to the Oberian Peninsula and into the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Ecology and behaviour

Burrows in sand or muddy sand often in large numbers. It feeds by filtering phytoplankton.

Key identification features
  • Cardinal teeth in left valve form a 'V' shaped projection which almost reaches the lower line of the hinge plate
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000178118]
Sort order
10420
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Spisula subtruncata

Solid shell up to about 2.5cm in length. The outside is dirty white in colour; the inside is white. The surface is sculptured with obvious concentric ridges and grooves.

Spisula solida

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

Common

Distributed from Norway to the Iberian Peninsula

Ecology and behaviour

Burrows in sandy bottoms, sometimes in large numbers. Feeds by filtering phytoplankton.

Similar species
  • Spisula elliptica has a 'V' shaped projection in the left valve that extends more than half way down the hinge plate
Key identification features
  • 'V' shaped projection reaches no more than half way down the hinge plate (left valve)
  • Lateral teeth serrated
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000178117]
Sort order
10410
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Spisula solida

Thick solid shell up to about 4.5cm in length. The outside is dirty white in colour and the inside white. The pallial sinus reaches to the posterior end of the chondrophore. The surface is sculptured with concentric grooves but it still appears smooth.

Spisula elliptica

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

Common

Distributed from the Barents Sea to the English Channel.

Ecology and behaviour

urrows in muddy sand and gravel where it filters phytoplankton.

Similar species
  • Spisula solida has a 'V' shaped projection that does not extend half way down the hinge plate
Key identification features
  • 'V' shaped projection of teeth reaches more than half way down the hinge plate
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000178116]
Sort order
10390
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Spisula elliptica

Solid or brittle shell up to about 3cm in length. The outside is dirty white in colour and is white inside. The pallial sinus reaches to about half way along the lateral tooth. The surface is sculptured with concentric rings.

Sphenia binghami

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Ecology and behaviour

Lives attached by byssus threads in crevices or holes bored by other molluscs or within Laminaria holdfasts.

Key identification features
  • ?Chondrophore not projecting beyond dorsal anterior line
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000178073]
Sort order
11130
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Sphenia binghami

Brittle shell up to about 1.5cm in length. The right valve is slightly larger than the left. Both inside and outside of shell is white. The surface of the shell is sculptured with fine concentric lines (?and irregular concentric undulations). The pallial sinus is deep.

Solen marginatus

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

Recorded from the Norwegian Sea and Baltic to the Iberian Peninsula and into the Mediterranean.

Ecology and behaviour

Burrows in sand or muddy sand in the sublittoral.

Key identification features
  • Only one tooth in the left valve and no hozontal teeth
  • Vertical groove on the outside of the shell behind front margin
  • Anterior adductor scar not as long as ligament
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000178020]
Sort order
10480
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Solen marginatus
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Straight sided shell up to about 12cm in length. Yellow in colour with light brown periostracum. Shell sculptured with smooth concentric lines and prominent groove just behind the front margin, Growth stages clear.

Solecurtus scopula

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

Local

Distributed from the UK south to the Mediterranean

Ecology and behaviour

Burrows in sand/gravel ? Filter feeder?

Similar species
  • Azorinus chamasolen does not have the radiating ribs
Key identification features
  • Cylindrical shell gaping at both ends
  • Right valve has two prominent cardinal teeth; left valve has one
  • Radiating ribs on the valve surface
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000178018]
Sort order
10780
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Solecurtus scopula

Solid shell up to 6cm in length. Yellowish white in colour; inside is white. Periostracum light green or yellow. Sculpture of concentric rings and radial ribs. Pallial sinus relatively deep and is confluent with the pallial line for much of its length.

Similipecten similis

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

UncommonDistributed from northern Norway to the Iberian Peninsula and into the Mediterranean.

Ecology and behaviour

Lives on muddy sand to fine gravel where it feeds by filtering phytoplankton.

Key identification features
  • The ears of the left valve are equal and almost equal on right valve
  • Shell without ribs; only fine concentric and radiating lines
  • Right valve is smaller than the left
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000177975]
Sort order
9720
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Similipecten similis

Thin, fragile, shell up to 1cm in length. It is white, yellow, grey or light brown in colour sometimes displaying irregular patterns. The surface lacks ribs but is sculptured with fine concentric and radiating lines.

Semierycina nitida

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

FrequentDistributed from the Norwegian Sea to the Iberian Peninsula and into the Mediterranean

Ecology and behaviour

Burrows in gravelly sand.

Key identification features
  • Surface sculptured with fine concentric lines
  • The right valve has two anterior and two posterior lateral teeth
  • Pits on the surface of the shell near the beak
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000177920]
Sort order
9980
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Semierycina nitida

Fragile shell up to 3mm in length. The shell, both outside and inside, is whote to translucent in colour. The surface is sculptured with fine concentric lines.

Scrobicularia plana

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

Common. From Norwegian Sea and Baltic down to the Iberian Peninsula and into the Mediterranean.

Ecology and behaviour

Burrows to a depth of about 25cm in clay or soft mud often generally in areas of reduced salinity such as fjords or estuaries. Often occurs in great abundances.

Key identification features
  • Possesses internal ligament or chondrophore
  • No lateral teeth
  • Relatively coarse sculpture of concentric rings on shell surface
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000177880]
Sort order
10860
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Scrobicularia plana

Solid shell, but thin, up to about 6 cm in length. Shell not glossy and grey, light yellow or light brown in colour. Surface of shell is sculptured with irregular concentric lines. Pallial sinus relatively deep and its edge is partially confluent with the pallial line.

Saxicavella jeffreysi

Submitted by Steve Wilkinson on Sat, 05/12/2009 22:15
Distribution and status

UncommonDistributed from te north of Norway to the Mediterranean

Ecology and behaviour

Burrows in sand, sandy mud or gravel.

Key identification features
  • Pallial line is continuous
  • ?two concentric ridges
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000177807]
Sort order
11190
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
  • Read more about Saxicavella jeffreysi

Fragile shell up to 1cm in length. The shell is coloured white both outside and inside? The surface is sculptured with fine concentric lines.

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