Dosinia exoleta (Linnaeus, 1758)
Norway and Baltic to Gabon, Mediterranean. Filter feeder, deeply burrowed in sandy or shell gravel, from intertidal to 70-100m deep. Original taxon: Venus exoleta.
Cap d’Agde, Hérault, Occitania, S. France. 20-45mm.
Venus exoleta: «  Hinge furnished with three teeth ; two near each other, the third divergent from the beaks. Subrotund. Wrought transversely with numerous regular and minute striae, margins smooth. » – E. Donovan: The natural history of British shells vol. 1, London 1804, via BHL.
The synonymy (capillaceus, complanata, fulva, radula) and the numerous variants (castanea, interrupta, radians, zonata etc.) illustrate the wide range of patterns and colours.
20m deep, Málaga, Andalucia, S. Spain. 38-42,5mm.
Same spot, 42mm.
Gruissan, Occitania. 34-43mm.
The Cotan (4) in M. Adanson: Histoire naturelle du Sénégal - Coquilles, Paris 1757, plate XVI.
 
« I can think of few shell species in which the same colours take on different shapes and nuances. Their background is always white, mingled with tawny or flesh-coloured blotches, which sometimes extend in mottles, sometimes in zigzags, sometimes in longitudinal bands, sometimes in these two ways, and often of all three together. It is commonly found in the sands of Gorée Island. »
Atlantic specimen from 40m deep, Tanger area, Gibraltar Strait. 50,5mm.
Specimens from English Channel.
Trawled in muddy sand and gravel off St-Malo, N. Brittany, NW. France. 46-52mm.
At low tide on sand, Roc’h Vran, Keremma beach, W. of Plouescat, NW. Brittany. 44-45mm.
Venus exoleta in Martini & al.: Neues systematisches Conchylien-Cabinet VII, Nürnberg 1784, via BHL.

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