''Petricolaria pholadiformis'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

s false angelwing, or false angel wing (US), and American piddock (UK), is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of saltwater

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

, a marine

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 ...

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

in the family

Veneridae The Veneridae or venerids, common name: Venus (mythology), Venus clams, are a very large family of minute to large, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs. Over 500 living species of venerid bivalves are known, most of which are edible, and m ...

, the Venus clams.

Description

''Petricolaria pholadiformis'' closely resembles the angel wing ('' Cyrtopleura costata''), the main distinguishing feature being that it lacks the apophyses, the spoon-shaped wings located near the beak, of the real angel wing. It grows to about long and is usually white. The anterior end is extended and has a rounded point while the posterior end is blunt and curved. There are ridges radiating from the beak, which are more pronounced at the posterior end, and fainter growth rings running parallel with the margin.False Angel Wing: A Piddock for Your Thoughts
Retrieved 30 November 2011.

Right and left valve of the same specimen: File:Petricolaria pholadiformis 01.jpg, Right valve File:Petricolaria pholadiformis 02.jpg, Left valve

Taxonomy

''Petricolaria pholadiformis'' was formerly classified under genus '' Petricola'' as ''Petricola pholadiformis'' but has since been reclassified under genus '' Petricolaria''.

Distribution

Indigenous

This species is native to the Eastern Coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

including 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 ...

Introduced

This clam was introduced and has become established in the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

and on the West Coast of

.''Petricolaria pholadiformis''
Marlin. Retrieved 30 November 2011. Petricola pholadiformis bohrmuschel

References

Veneridae Bivalves described in 1818 {{Veneridae-stub