''Carditamera gracilis'', or the West Indian cardita, is a species of

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Carditidae Carditidae is a family of marine bivalve clams of the order Carditida, which was long included in the Venerida. They are the type taxon of the superfamily Carditoidea. Carditidae is a neglected and poorly classified family. It has six ...

. It can be found off the coast of the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

.Abbott, R.T. & Morris, P.A. ''A Field Guide to Shells: Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and the West Indies.'' New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. 45.

Description

''Carditamera gracilis'' has an elongated shell, strong medium size about 40 mm. It has more pronounced radial rib and high in the back. Its color is white with brown spots; inside is pearly.Lodeiros Seijos, J.M., Marin Espinosa, Baumar. y Prieto Arcas, Antulio. 1999: Catalogo de moluscos marinos de las costas nororientales de Venezuela: Clase Bivalvia. Asociacion de Profesores de la Universidad de Oriente, Cumana-Venezuela.Macsotay O. & Campos. R. 2001. Moluscos representativos de la plataforma de Margarita. Editora Rivolta. Valencia. 280p.

Distribution

''Carditamera gracilis'' is distributed through the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

Habitat

It usually inhabits shallow water, attached to rocky substrates.

References

Carditidae Bivalves described in 1856 {{bivalve-stub