Dorsal view of shell
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected by Jan Light from West Wittering, Sussex. Length = 42mm.
<em>Petricola pholadiformis</em> (Lamarck, 1818)
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected by Jan Light from West Wittering, Sussex. Length = 42mm.
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected by Jan Light from West Wittering, Sussex. Length = 35mm.
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected by Jan Light from West Wittering, Sussex. Length = 35mm.
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected by Jan Light from West Wittering, Sussex. Length = 35mm.
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected by Jan Light from West Wittering, Sussex. Length = 35mm.
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected by Jan Light from West Wittering, Sussex. Length = 35mm.
Alien
Recorded from the south of Norway to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Feeds by filtering phytoplankton from the water.
Bores into hard clay, stiff mud or chalk/limestone. Probably imported with the American Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) at the end of the 19th century but is now well established.
Brittle shell up to about 6cm in length and white to fawn in colour. Valve surface covered with fine concentric ridged and strong radiating ribs somes very coarse and bearing spines. Margin smooth except where the larger ribs meet it. Three cardinal teeth in left valve; right valve has two. Note - not typical of the Veneracea more like Pholadidae (piddocks) but lacks the very prominent cardinal teeth typical of piddocks.