The shell is rounded or subtriangular and the valves markedly convex. The surface has irregular striations and moderately dense pores. The hinge plate is narrow, and the cardinal teeth slightly bent. Pre-siphonal mantle suture short. Outer demibranch posterior. It reaches 4.2 mm in length.
Euglesa tasmanica (Tenison Woods, 1876)
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 tasmanicum Tenison Woods, 1876. In Tenison Woods, J. F. (1876). On the freshwater shells. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1875: 66-82.
Type locality: ?Browns River, Tasmania
Lives in creeks and sometimes lakes. Brood pouch formed by four or five filaments and contains one to five larvae. Suspension and deposit feeder.
South-eastern Australia including Tasmania.
Korniushin (2000) noted that the nature of the evolutionary relationship of Euglesa tasmanica to the rest of this genus is uncertain.
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.
Smith, B. J. & Kershaw, R. C. (1979). Field guide to the non-marine Molluscs of South-eastern Australia. Canberra, A.N.U. Press.
Smith, B. J. & Kershaw, R. C. (1981). Tasmanian Land and Freshwater Molluscs. Hobart, University of Tasmania.
Tenison Woods, J. F. (1876). On the freshwater shells. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1875: 66-82.
