Hiatella rugosa (Linnaeus, 1767)

Circumboreal. Norway & Baltic to Morocco, Mediterranean. Original taxon: Mytilus rugosus. Plage de la Conque, Cap d’Agde, S. France. 9,5mm. The shell is equivalve.

Ligament large and prominent (MacGillivray, 1844). Synonyms: gallicana, irregularis. At low tide in sandstone, Olhos d’Agua, Algarve, S. Portugal. 17,5-22mm.

Mytilus rugosus in E. Donovan: The natural history of British shells vol. IV, London 1802, plate 141.   « Shell rhombic oval, rugged, obtuse at the ends and antiquated. In habit and manners of life this species greatly resembles the Pholades, each forming for itself a separate apartment within the hard clay, or solid stone, this it pierces when young, and afterwards continues to enlarge the cell as it increases in bulk, without widening the aperture; so that when full grown, the shell cannot easily be taken whole out of the cell, without breaking the stone in which it is contained. »

Extreme low tide in limestone rock, Pointe des Minimes, La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, W. France. 28mm.

The orange mantle of Hiatella rugosa. Le Château-d’Olonne, Les Sables-d’Olonne, Vendée, W. France. Original picture provided by J. Renoult for iNaturalist – (CC BY-NC).

Siphons yellowish. 60m deep, in the channel of Brač island, Split-Dalmatia Comitat, S. Croatia. 22,1mm. Original pictures provided by R. Stanić (HR). – CC BY-NC-SA) –

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