Relevant Synonyms Venus textile Gmelin, 1791 Misidentification Tapes undulatus (Born, 1778) [Moazzo, 1939 and others]  photo: P. Pravlis / Coll. R. and L. Enzenross

SHORT DESCRIPTION Shell medium sized, solid, equivalve, inequilateral; umbones well in the anterior part of shell. Outline elongate, almost twice longer than high; dorsal margin sloping to a narrowed posterior margin; anterior rounded slightly acute. Hinge without lateral teeth (see detailed photo below). Well defined lunule slightly depressed. Surface shining. Sculpture smooth with growth lines only. Pallial sinus round pointing to the beaks reaching half the shell's height. Internal margin smooth. Detail of the dentition photo: S. Xentidis color : externally beige, pale yellow with a characteristic zig-zag pattern in brown. Internally white. common size : shell to 50 mm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS This species may be confused with P. undulata (Born, 1778); the latter has a characteristic undulated sculpture, oblique to the growth lines; less elevated outline and less inflated valves (Fischer-Piette and Métivier, 1971). BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Filter feeder. Burrows in deep continental shelf waters bottom where it can dominate the molluscan fauna. Its affinities are with warm Indo-Pacific faunas and normal marine salinities (Cooper, 1990). habitat : common on offshore shelf bottoms (Barash and Danin, 1992).

1st Mediterranean record Palestine, 1948 [no collecting date]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide: Indo-Pacific, including the Red Sea, Gulf of Suez (Oliver, 1992); Suez Canal (Moazzo, 1939) as Tapes undulatus. Mediterranean: recorded in Palestine (Haas, 1948); southern Turkey (Niederhöfer et al., 1991) and Syria (Kucheruk and Basin, 1999). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Common in deep waters along Israel coasts and southeastern Turkey. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Barash A. and Danin Z., 1973. The Indo-Pacific species of mollusca in the Mediterranean and notes on a collection from the Suez canal. Israel Journal of Zoology, 21(3-4): 301-374. Cooper M.R., 1990. Quaternary mollusca from the Port Durnford Formation. South African Journal of Geology, 93(3): 538-546. Engl W., 1995. Specie prevalentemente Lessepsiane attestate lungo le coste Turche. Bollettino Malacologico, 31(1-4): 43-50. Kucheruk N.V. and Basin A.B., 1999. Lessepsian migrant Strombus persicus bottom community - new one for eastern Mediterranean. Abstracts of the International Conference on Oceanography of the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. Similarities and differences of two interconnected basins. Athens, 23-26 February 1999, p. 244.   Moazzo P.G., 1939. Mollusques testacés marins du Canal de Suez. Mémoires de l'Institut d'Egypte, 38: 1-283. Niederhöfer H., Enzenross L. and Enzenross R., 1991. Neue Erkenntnisse über die Ausbreitung von "Lesseps'schen Einwanderern" (Mollusca) a der türkischen Mittelmeerküste. Club Conchilia Information, 23(3-4): 94-108. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update : January 2005 ©ciesm 2002