Neopycnodonte cochlear (Poli, 1795)
Iceland to Angola, Azores to Mediterranean. Caribbean. Lives in deep water, on the margins of the continental shelf, and on the slope (MBSBI). Often in association with Corallium rubrum.
Original taxon: Ostrea cochlear.
These specimens were attached to a dead Xenophora crispa (visible on top), which was trawled off Almería, Andalucia, S. Spain. 28-40mm.
A specimen from Tyrrhenian Sea, collected in nets at 80m deep, off Calabria. SW. Italy. 22mm.
« Ostrea cochlear: shell semi-oval, spoon-shaped, inequivalve, gross. Right valve, or vault, gibbous like an egg, smooth, sometimes ruffled by previous growings and by wide, slightly curved folds. The cap is thicker; it can be concave enough to almost enter in contact with the right valve, for the remarkable thinness of the animal. Both valves slightly stronger near the umbo. Margins exceedingly thin, transparent and fragile as glass, easily chipped; therefore rarely injured. Most of the cap margin is innately split around its perimeter; its prodissoconch is often squamous, coiled near the apex. The vault offers glows of the most beautiful pink; sometimes it whitens. Cap white, occasionally slightly ornamented with rosy or dark rays. » – G. S. Poli: Testacea utriusque siciliae… vol. II, Parma 1795, via BHL.
Synonyms: cochlearis, floribunda, laterostrata.
Trawled off Chioggia, Venezia, Veneto, NE. Italy. 58mm.
250m deep, off Ceuta, Western Alborán Basin. 28-43mm.

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