Inside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Ballachulish, Scotland. Length = 87mm.
Mytilus edulis
<em>Mytilus edulis</em> (Linnaeus, 1758)
Outside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Ballachulish, Scotland. Length = 87mm.
Inside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Bexhill, Sussex. Length = 47mm.
Outside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Bexhill, Sussex. Length = 47mm.
Outside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Bexhill, Sussex. Length = 54mm.
Inside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Bexhill, Sussex. Length = 54mm.
Inside of right valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Bexhill, Sussex. Length = 54mm.
Outside of right valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Bexhill, Sussex. Length = 54mm.
Outside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected by A. Leicester from River Mersey. Length = 58mm.
Mytilus edulis
Distribution and status
Common
Distributed from Norway south to the Iberian Peninsula and into the Mediterranean.
Ecology and behaviour
Lives attached by byssus threads to any suitable hard substrate. It is very gregarious and often occurs in very dense beds. Even once anchored some movement is still possible by dropping some of the byssus threads. Feeds by filtering phytoplankton.
Similar species
Key identification features
- The beaks are at the anterior end of the shell
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000176602]
Sort order
9270
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
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Solid wedge shpaed shell up to about 15cm in length (though exceptionally may be bigger). The outside is purple, blue or brown in colour; the inside is pearl white bordered with purple or blue. The surface is sculptured with concentric rings.