Semipallium flavicans ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

Dijkstra, H. H. & Kilburn, R. N., 2001, The family Pectinidae in South Africa and Mozambique (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Pectinoidea), African Invertebrates 42, pp. 263-321 : 297-298

Semipallium flavicans ( Linnaeus, 1758)

( Fig. 35 )

Ostrea flavicans Linnaeus, 1758: 698 ; Dijkstra, 1999: 425, fig. 9C–D (lectotype). Type locality: ‘in O.

australiore’.

Pecten tigris Lamarck, 1819: 171 ; Dijkstra, 1994: 482, figs 70–74 (lectotype). Type locality: ‘ l’Océan indien?’, here emended to Maluku, Indonesia (specimens in BMNH, MNHN, ZMA).

Semipallium tigris ; Dijkstra, 1998: 38, pl. 7, figs 6–9 (references, type data, distribution).

Description: Shell height 60 mm (average ca. 40 mm), obliquely elongate, RV more convex than LV, inequilateral, auricles unequal, umbonal angle ca. 80–90°. Both valves with prominent radial plicae (9–10), ribs and interstices with secondary tuberculated or spiny radial riblets, covered by shagreened (reticulated) microsculpture (more granulated in eroded state). Anterior auricles larger than posterior, with numerous radial riblets (ca. 12–15 on anterior, ca. 5–8 on posterior). Hinge line straight. Resilifer oblong, slightly oblique, triangular. Cardinal crura weak. Byssal fasciole moderately wide, byssal notch rather deep.Active ctenolium with 5–7 teeth on suture. Internal surface somewhat plicated. Colour whitish, creamy or yellowish with brown or red maculations, RV paler, interior umbonal area usually spotted dark brown, auricular denticles usually reddish, plicae yellowish.

Type material: O. flavicans : lectotype, des. Dijkstra (1999) in UUZM . P. tigris : lectotype MNHN (unregistered) des. Dijkstra (1994: 483), paralectotype MNHN (unregistered) . Regional data: MOZAMBIQUE: Nacala ( NMSA: H. Boswell); same loc., 10–12 m, amongst coral rubble, sand, live ( HD6468 ) . SOUTH AFRICA: Zululand: off Boteler Point, 78 m, coarse sand, dead ( NMSA D7518 : NMDP) .

Distribution:Throughout most of tropical Indo-West Pacific, south-western limit northern Zululand; not yet known from the Red Sea, Hawaii or French Polynesia ( Dijkstra 1989).

Habitat: Living byssally attached to corals or amongst coral rubble on sandy bottoms at littoral to sublittoral depths.

Remarks: Dijkstra (1999) demonstrated that the earliest available name for the species commonly known as Semipallium tigris is Ostrea flavicans Linnaeus, 1758 .

Figures

Fig. 35. Semipallium tigris (Lamarck, 1819): NMSA D7518, off Boteler Point, Zululand, 78 m, 50.4 x 44.8 mm, RV exterior.