Euglesa fultoni (Kuiper, 1983)

Diagnostic features

Extremely variable in shell outline, but can be distinguished from P. etheridgei with which it is sympatric by the characteristic yellow colour of the periostracum, the very flat shell and angulate outline. The two species can easily be distinguished in large series (Korniushin, 2000). It reaches 4.6 mm in length.

Classification

Euglesa fultoni (Kuiper, 1983)

Common name: Pea shell, pea clam, pill clam

Class Bivalvia

Infraclass Heteroconchia

Cohort Heterodonta

Megaorder Neoheterodontei

Order Sphaeriida

Superfamily Sphaerioidea

Family Sphaeriidae

Subfamily: Sphaeriinae

Genus Euglesa Jenyns, 1832 (Type species: Euglesa henslowiana Jenyns, 1832 (= Pisidium personatum Malm, 1855) (also sometimes cited as Tellina pusilla Gmelin, 1791)

Original name: Pisidium fultoni Kuiper, 1983. In Kuiper, J. G. J. (1983). The Sphaeriidae of Australia. Basteria 47: 3-52.

Type locality: East Lake (north), part of Arthurs Lake, Tasmania.

Biology and ecology

Gravid specimens have one or two free larvae in each demibranch, no brood pouch was observed by Korniushin (2000). Abundant in littoral samples in lakes only. Suspension and deposit feeder.

Distribution

Cental Plateau lakes, Tasmania.

Further reading

Korniushin, A. V. (2000). Review of the family Sphaeriidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) of Australia, with the description of four new species. Records of the Australian Museum 52: 41-102.

Kuiper, J. G. J. (1983). The Sphaeriidae of Australia. Basteria 47: 3-52.

Lamprell, K. & Healy, J. (1998). Bivalves of Australia, volume 2. Leiden, Backhuys Publishers.

Lee, T. (2019). Sphaeriidae Deshayes, 1855 (1820). Pp. 197-201 in C. Lydeard & Cummings, K. S. Freshwater Mollusks of the World: a Distribution Atlas. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.

Lee, T. & Ó Foighil, D. (2003). Phylogenetic structure of the Sphaeriinae, a global clade of freshwater bivalve molluscs, inferred from nuclear (ITS-1) and mitochondrial (16S) ribosomal gene sequences. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 137: 245-260.

Smith, B. J. (1992). Non-marine Mollusca. Pp. i-xii, 1-408 in W. W. K. Houston. Zoological Catalogue of Australia, 8. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.