(Linné, 1758)

Description:
Shell solid, equivalve; inequilateral, beaks behind the midline; triangular in outline. Fine radiating striations visible with hand lens, with coarser concentric lines. Growth stages clear. Lightly decussate posteriorly. Anterior hinge line curved above the horizontal when the posterior is vertical; 16-25 hinge teeth anteriorly, 10-14 posteriorly; lunule poorly developed, escutcheon distinct with strongly pouting hinge line. Margin of shell crenulate (N. nucleus-drawing).

Size:
Up to 12 mm.

Colour:
Shell white or grey; periostracum matt, light yellow, light brown or greenish yellow, with darker or lighter concentric bands.

Animal:
Cream coloured. Mantle has plain margins; oval foot is toothed all round the edge. The mouth and lips are small, but the lips have long appendages which are protruded from the shell at the same time as the foot and used as sense-organs in the search of food. The small brown gills are plume-like.

Habitat:
On coarse sand and fine gravel.

Distribution:
Often common. Off all British coasts, to about 150 m. Distributed from Norway south to the Mediterranean, West Africa, and the coasts of South Africa (Distr. N. nucleus).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Protobranchia
Order Nuculoida
Family Nuculidae
Genus Nucula
Species Nucula nucleus

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Nucula nucleus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Arca nucleus Linné, 1758
Glycimeris argentea da Costa, 1778
Tellina adriatica Gmelin, 1791
Arca margaritacea Bruguière, 1792
Nucula radiata Forbes & Hanley, 1849
Nucula nucleata Locard, 1886
Nucula margaritacea Lamarck

Hayward, P.J., Wigham, G.D. & N. Yonow, 1990. Mollusca I: Polyplacophora, Scaphopoda, and Gastropoda. In: The Marine Fauna of the British Isles and North-West Europe. (ed. P.J. Hayward & J.S. Ryland). Clarendon Press, Oxford: 628-730.

Poppe, G.T. & Y. Goto, 1993. European Seashells. Vol. II. 221 pp. Wiesbaden/Verlag Christa Hemmen.

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

Step, E., 1927. Shell life. 421 pp. Frederick Warne & Co., LTD, London.

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

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