(Montagu, 1808)

Description (shell):
Shell is fragile, equivalve and inequilateral, beaks in the posterior half directed inwards. Outline is regularly oval. Internal ligament below and behind the beaks extending inside, below the umbones (T. ferruginosa-hinge). Underneath the deposit of periostracum the sculpture is of concentric lines and a very few, very faint radiating lines. Growth stages are clear. Right valve with one cardinal tooth its base continuous with a low ridge. Left valve with one anterior lateral. There are no posterior lateral teeth in either valve. Anterior adductor scar is larger than the posterior. Pallial line is wide. Margin is smooth (T. ferruginosa-drawing).

Size:
Up to 7.9 mm in length.

Colour:
White. Periostracum is thin, often covered by a thick rust-coloured deposit. Inside of shell white, sometimes tinted light purple.

Animal:
One large siphonal tentacle above, the orifice of the exhalant siphon below. Numerous and densely placed papillae along the ventral part of the middle fold of the mantle.

Habitat:
Particularly in fine muddy sand. A common commensal of Echinocardium cordatum , one of the sand-burrowing echinoderms.

Distribution:
In the whole North Sea (Distr. T. ferruginosa). Distributed from northern Norway, south to the Mediterranean, along the Atlantic coast of Morocco and to Madeira.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Heterodonta
Order Veneroida
Family Montacutidae
Genus Tellimya
Species Tellimya ferruginosa

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Tellimya ferruginosa (Montagu, 1808)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Mya ferruginosa Montagu, 1808
Montacuta oblonga Turton, 1822
Tellimya elliptica Brown, 1827
Tellimya glabra Brown, 1827
Erycina anodon Philippi, 1836
Thracia elongata Philippi, 1844 non Thracia elongata Roemer, 1841
Mya ferruginea Gray J.E., 1847
Tellimya nivea Sars G.O., 1878
Montacuta ferruginea Locard, 1886
Montacuta ferruginosa

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.

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

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.

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

You can continue searching for Tellimya ferruginosa on one of these Web sites:

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

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