Pratulum pulchellum

Taxobox
name = "Pratulum pulchellum"


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Bivalvia
subclassis = Heterodonta
ordo = Veneroida
superfamilia = Cardioidea
familia = Cardiidae
genus = "Pratulum"
species = "P. pulchellum"
binomial = "Pratulum pulchellum"
binomial_authority = (Gray, 1843)
synonyms = "Cardium pulchellum" Gray, 1843

"Pratulum pulchellum" is a species of cockle, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Cardiidae.

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand, including the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands.

Habitat

This species of cockle lives in fine sand or mud at depths of between 18 and 185 m.

hell description

The shell is small, thin and fragile, densely sculptured with fine radial riblets, crossed by finer, and very numerous, lamelose threads, strongest at the posterior end where they are weakly spinose.

The external shell coloration is yellowish to salmon-pink, with two radial streaks of darker pink. Internally it is whitish, also with two divergent pink streaks.

The shell length is up to 29 mm, height up to 26 mm, and thickness up to 18 mm.

References

* Powell A. W. B., William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1