PTERIIDAE, Gray, 1847

Oliver, P. Graham, Holmes, Anna, Killeen, Ian, Light, Janice & Wood, Harriet, 2004, Annotated checklist of the marine Bivalvia of Rodrigues, Journal of Natural History 38 (23), pp. 3229-3272 : 3240

PTERIIDAE Electroma fuscopurpurea ( Smith, 1876)

Habitat. Attached by a byssus to a wide variety of living corals, usually of a branching form. Also frequent on Millepora. From 0.5 to 10 m.

Distribution. Can be found around the lagoon but appears to prefer areas with a higher suspension load and is a dominant feature in the area between Ile

Gombrani and Port Sud-Est.

Remarks. At first we believed this to be a variety of the widespread E. alacorvi (Dillwyn, 1817) but comparing Rodrigues material with that of E. alacorvi from the Red Sea we found anatomical differences. This suggests that a complex of species may exist. Observations in the Red Sea suggested that E. alacorvi was always attached to Millepora and not hard corals ( Zuschin and Oliver, 2003). Such a restricted association is not the case at Rodrigues for E. fuscopurpurea .