Lima lima

Lima lima
Lama lima from Sicily on display at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Limoida
Family: Limidae
Genus: Lima
Species: L. lima
Binomial name
Lima lima
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
  • Lima alba Cuvier, 1797
  • Lima squamosa Lamarck, 1801
  • Lima vulgaris Scacchi, 1836
  • Ostrea lima Linnaeus, 1758

Lima lima, or the spiny fileclam, is a species of bivalve mollusc in the family Limidae.

Description

The shell of an adult Lima lima can be as long as 30–79 millimetres (1.2–3.1 in). The surface of the valves show 18-24 strong ribs covered with small scales. These clams are filter feeders.

Distribution and habitat

This species can be found in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Eastern Atlantic and in Caribbean waters, ranging from southern Florida to the West Indies and Bermuda. It lives on rocky bottoms and coral, usually in the seagrass prairies of Posidonia oceanica, at depths of 0 to 50 m.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/19/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.