North Sea Benthos Survey (NSBS)

WoRMS taxon details

Spisula elliptica (T. Brown, 1827)

AphiaID

140300 (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:140300)

Classification

Status

accepted

Rank

Species

Parent

Spisula J. E. Gray, 1837

Original name

Mactra elliptica T. Brown, 1827

Synonymised names

Mactra elliptica T. Brown, 1827 · unaccepted

Mactra gracilis Locard, 1891 · unaccepted

Mactra luteola Lovén, 1846 · unaccepted

Spisula elliptica elliptica (T. Brown, 1827) · unaccepted

Direct children (1)

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Subspecies Spisula elliptica elliptica (T. Brown, 1827) accepted as Spisula elliptica (T. Brown, 1827)

Environment

marine

Original description

(of Mactra elliptica T. Brown, 1827) Brown, T. (1827). Illustrations of the conchology of Great Britain and Ireland. Drawn from nature. W.H. Lizars and D. Lizars, Edinburgh and S. Highley, London. 144 pp., 52 pls., available online at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/127868
page(s): Plate XV. Fig 6. [details]

Descriptive notes

Distribution S. elliptica has only been found at some locations south of 54'N in the Southern Bight and shows a marked concentration in...

Distribution S. elliptica has only been found at some locations south of 54'N in the Southern Bight and shows a marked concentration in big patches. The species is not present in the brackish waters. While the closely resembling species S. subtruncata is more common near the shore, S. elliptica also lives in more offshore parts. This distribution pattern has also been reported in an earlier investigation in 1964 (Eisma, 1966). [details]

Taxonomic citation

MolluscaBase eds. (2025). MolluscaBase. Spisula elliptica (T. Brown, 1827). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=140300 on 2025-02-20

Taxonomic edit history

Date

action

2004-12-21 15:54:05Z

created

Gofas, Serge

2019-03-22 19:47:22Z

changed

Marshall, Bruce

Licensing

The webpage text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

[taxonomic tree]

original description (of Mactra elliptica T. Brown, 1827) Brown, T. (1827). Illustrations of the conchology of Great Britain and Ireland. Drawn from nature. W.H. Lizars and D. Lizars, Edinburgh and S. Highley, London. 144 pp., 52 pls., available online at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/127868
page(s): Plate XV. Fig 6. [details]

original description (of Mactra gracilis Locard, 1891) Locard, A. (1891). Les coquilles marines des côtes de France. Annales de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon. 37: 1-385 [Published 31 October 1891; also published by Baillière as a book in 1892]., available online at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/54577547
page(s): 266 [details]

context source (Schelde) Maris, T.; Beauchard, O.; Van Damme, S.; Van den Bergh, E.; Wijnhoven, S.; Meire, P. (2013). Referentiematrices en Ecotoopoppervlaktes Annex bij de Evaluatiemethodiek Schelde-estuarium Studie naar “Ecotoopoppervlaktes en intactness index”. Monitor Taskforce Publication Series, 2013-01. NIOZ: Yerseke. 35 pp. (look up in IMIS) [details]

context source (BeRMS 2020) Bio-environmental research group; Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries research (ILVO), Belgium; (2015): Epibenthos and demersal fish monitoring data in function of wind energy development in the Belgian part of the North Sea. [details]

basis of record Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca. in: Costello, M.J. et al. (eds), European Register of Marine Species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Patrimoines Naturels. 50: 180-213., available online at http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/ocrd/254404.pdf [details]

additional source Huber, M. (2010). Compendium of bivalves. A full-color guide to 3,300 of the world's marine bivalves. A status on Bivalvia after 250 years of research. Hackenheim: ConchBooks. 901 pp., 1 CD-ROM. (look up in IMIS) [details]

Present

Present in aphia/obis/gbif/idigbio

Inaccurate

Introduced: alien

Containing type locality

Unreviewed

Biology Because it has been confused with S. subtruncata for a long time, little is known about the reproduction of S. elliptica. lt has a planktonic larval development and is a suspension feeder (Wolff, 1973). [details]

Habitat S. elliptica occurs in various types of sediment, viz. gravel, medium to fine sand and muddy sand (Tebble, 1966; Wolff, 1973). [details]

Morphology S. elliptica has a thick and strong shell, subtriangular but distinctly asymmetrical in outline. large specimens reach up to 32 mm in length. The sculpture consists of fine concentric lines and grooves. The growth stages are clear. The shell is dirty white to cream in colour, with a glossy, white inner surface (Tebble, 1966; Wolff, 1973; Hayward & Ryland, 1990). [details]

Definitions

Language	Name
Danish	elliptisk trugmusling	[details]
Dutch	ovale strandschelpelliptische strandschelp	[details]
English	elliptical trough shellelliptical surfclamelliptic trough shell	[details]
French	spisule	[details]
German	kleine Trogmuschelelliptische Trogmuschel	[details]