This species "is distinguished from other Australian Musculium species by the peculiar shell outline, longer hinge (relatively large distance between the cusps of lateral teeth) and shorter ligament. The outline of the nephridium is also peculiar." (Korniushin, 2000).
Sphaerium (Musculium) kendricki 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 Sphaerium Scopoli, 1777
Type species: Tellina cornea Linnaeus, 1758. Europe.
Subgenus Musculium Link, 1807
Original name: Sphaerium kendricki Kuiper, 1983. In Kuiper, J.G.J. (1983). The Sphaeriidae of Australia. Basteria 47: 3-52.
Type locality: Drain through Roselea nursery across North Beach Road, Osborne Park. Western Australia.
"Two brood sacs and three generations of young, with one to five embryos each, found in single dissected specimen." (Korniushin, 2000). Suspension and deposit feeder. Live in lakes and lagoons.
South-western Australia.
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.
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.
