Lovén, 1846

Description (shell):
Closely related to Tellimya ferruginosa . Shell small, fragile, equivalve and moderately convex. Outline oblong-ovate. Subequilateral. Beaks are subcentral. Antero-dorsal margin slightly excurved; antero-ventral portion slightly pointed. Hinge teeth feeble (M. tenella-hinge). Resilifer submarginal, forming a very acute angle with the posterior-dorsal edge of the shell. Surface almost smooth, with fine and dense growth-lines and a few stronger ones at irregular intervals, with faint microscopic radiating striae. Periostracum thin polished film. Interior is smooth, mat or slightly polished.

Size:
Up to 4.3 x 2.8 mm.

Colour:
Transparent bluish-white in living and fresh specimens, opaque and yellowish-white in preserved ones.

Animal:
Soft parts much like in Tellimya ferruginosa : one large siphonal tentacle above, and another one below, the orifice of the exhalant siphon. However, there are only a few scattered papillae along the ventral part of the middle fold of the mantle, not numerous and densely places ones as in T. ferruginosa .

Habitat:
Lives at moderate depths in soft bottoms.

Distribution:
Scandinavian shelf from northern Norway to Øresund (Distr. M. tenella).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Heterodonta
Order Veneroida
Family Montacutidae
Genus Montacuta
Species Montacuta tenella

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Synonym of Tellimya tenella (Lovén, 1846)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Montacuta tenella Lovén, 1846
Decipula ovata Jeffreys in Friele, 1875
Tellimya ovalis Sars G.O., 1878
Decipula tenella
Montacuta ovalis (G. O. Sars). Ockelmann, 1959

Ockelmann, K.W., 1965: Redescription, distribution, biology and dimorphous sperm of Montacuta tenella (Mollusca, Leptonacea). Ophelia, 2(1): 211-221.

Seaward, D.R., 1990. Distribution of the marine molluscs of north west Europe. Nature Conservancy Council.

Tebble, N., 1966. British Bivalve Seashells. 212 pp. Trustees of The British Museum (Natural history). London.

You can continue searching for Montacuta tenella on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

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