Pholas dactylus
| Pholas dactylus | |
|---|---|
| File:Pholadidae - Pholas dactylus.JPG | |
| Shell of Pholas dactylus from Sicily on display at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano | |
| Scientific classification Edit this classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Myida |
| Family: | Pholadidae |
| Genus: | Pholas |
| Species: | P. dactylus
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| Binomial name | |
| Pholas dactylus | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Pholas dactylus, or common piddock, is a bioluminescent clam-like species of marine mollusc in the family Pholadidae.
The piddock bores into the substrate for shelter, and lives in a tubular burrow formed by grinding the material away with hard parts of the shell by rotating on the longitudinal axis. It has been known to bore into the hard metamorphic rock gneiss, though it more often lives in softer rock. It is a filter feeder, using its siphons to reach the water outside the burrow. It was once a highly esteemed food in Europe.[2][1]
It is sensitive to light, retracting into its shell when exposed to it.[3]
Distribution
[edit | edit source]The coasts of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea.
Ancient history
[edit | edit source]Pliny spoke of luminescence in the mouths of people who ate Pholas, the rock-boring shell-fish, and of such importance is this phenomenon that it is even said to have gained the first king of Scotland his throne.[4] Hippolytus of Rome tells us that it was a common pagan trick to use the luminescent property of this clam to create the illusion of burning, "And they accomplish the burning of a house, by daubing it over with the juice of a certain fish called dactylus."[5] In Bernard Cornwall’s ‘Excalibur’ Merlin daubs a girl in the juices from ‘Piddocks’ (a local British name) to give the impression of pagan divinity in a young girl.
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Right valve
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Left valve
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b Gofas, S. (2012). Pholas dactylus Linnaeus, 1758. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2012-02-23
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- ^ [1] Author: Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, Volume: v.21, 1904-1905, Subject: Natural history; Natural history, Publisher: [Melbourne] Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, Year: 1884, Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT, page 93
- ^ [2] Author: Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies Book IV, Chapter XXXI.
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