Pteria hirundo (Linnaeus, 1758)
Extreme SW. of British Isles to Angola, Canarias, Azores and lusitanian seamounts to Mediterranean. Introduced in Black Sea (Romania). Attached by its byssus to the corals or gorgonians of submarine cliffs, sometimes on stones in mud, also on rock, from 10m deep down to the continental shelf. Original taxon: Mytilus hirundo. Synonyms: anglica Brown, britannica Leach, communis, falcata, tarentina, undata…

50-80m deep, on Gorgonians, Almería, Andalucia, S. Spain. 103mm.
Other synonyms:
apus, eximia, heteroptera, marmorata, signata, versicolor…
20m deep, on Gorgonians, Málaga, Andalucia. 78-80mm.
Juvenile dredged at 50-80m deep, off Almería, on bottoms covered with coral debris. 3,5-4,5mm.
Young specimen from 120m deep, coral bottom, southern coast of Gibraltar Strait. 14mm.
Avicula tarentina in G. P. Deshayes: “Histoire naturelle des Mollusques – Atlas ” Exploration scientifique de l’Algérie…, Paris 1844, via BHL.
50m deep, on gorgonian, Scilla, Reggio Calabria, SW. Italy. 65mm.
« The Avicula hirundo constitutes, along the oceanic coasts of France, large beds at a depth of circa 130m, in the company of Ostrea cochlear Poli. » – Bucquoy, Dautzenberg & Dollfus: Les mollusques marins du Roussillon vol. II, Paris 1888, via BHL.

Specimen from the Bay of Biscay.
180m dep, off Bayonne, SW. France. 82,5mm.
Avicula tarentina in J. G. Hidalgo: Moluscos marinos de España, Portugal y las Baleares, Madrid 1870, via BHL.
On Paramuricea clavata (Risso, 1826), 1km north of Pointe Rousse, western extremity of Levant Island, Hyères, Var, S. France. Original picture provided by F. Ducarme for iNaturalist – (CC BY-NC-ND).
Pteria colymbus (Gould, 1851) can be found in the range.
collected at 6m deep, on Gorgonian, along the dam, Pointe Noire, Congo-Brazzaville. 74mm.

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