(Müller O.F., 1776)

Description (shell):
Shell is thin, fragile, inequilateral, the anterior ears three or four times as long as the posterior. Inequivalve, a large byssal notch in the right anterior ear. Circular in outline, except for the projecting ears. Sculpture of valves different: right valve with fine radiating and concentric lines, its surface smooth except for small spines which sometimes occur near the margins; left valve rough, with numerous, very fine, radiating ribs carrying small spines. Growth stages are clear. Byssal notch with teeth. Margin is smooth.

Size:
Up to 19 mm in length.

Colour:
Colour variable but mainly white, pink and red-brown gathered into a variety of stripes, zigzags, blotches, etc.

Animal:
The whitish animal lives attached by a byssus when small, later free and capable of swimming by the opening and rapid closing of the valves. The foot is developed as a finger-like organ, occupied in the spinning of byssal threads, which pass through the ears. The mantle margin is double, the inner finely fringed and the outer edged with long tentacles, and at their base gleam 25 crimson pupilled, blue-black ocelli (eye-spots), of unequal size and irregular disposition (P. striatum-animal).

Habitat:
Around the British Isles this bivalve lives offshore, to considerable depth, generally on coarse bottoms of muddy sand, gravel or shell.

Distribution:
Distributed from southern Iceland and northern Norway to the Iberian Peninsula and the western Mediterranean, not in the southern North Sea (Distr. P. striatum).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Pteromorphia
Order Pterioida
Family Pectinidae
Genus Palliolum
Species Palliolum striatum

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Palliolum striatum (Müller O.F., 1776)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Pecten striatus Müller O.F., 1776
Pecten reticulatus Chemnitz, 1784
Pecten vitreus Chemnitz, 1784 ; partim
Pecten fuci Bosc, 1801
Pecten aculeatus Jeffreys, 1839 non Pecten aculeatus Bosc, 1801
Pecten landsburgi Smith J., 1839
Pecten rimulosus Philippi, 1844
Pecten testae var. suborbicularis Jeffreys, 1864
Pecten striatus var. albida Locard, 1888
Pecten striatus var. rubiginosa Locard, 1888
Pecten zonatus Locard, 1888
Pecten striatus var. violacea Locard, 1888 non Pecten violaceus Bosc, 1801
Pecten striatus var. tigrina Locard, 1888
Pecten striatus var. subcostulata Locard, 1888
Pecten striatus var. rosea Locard, 1888
Pecten striatus var. cornea Locard, 1888
Pecten striatus var. luteula Locard, 1888
Pecten striatus var. marmorea Locard, 1888
Pecten punctatus Locard, 1888
Pecten radiatus Locard, 1888
Pecten testae sensu Weinkauff, 1867 non Philippi, 1836 ; Philippi, 1836 ex Bivona ms.
Chlamys striata

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.

Wagner, H. P., 1991. Review of the European Pectinidae. Vitra Marina, 41(1): 1-48.

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