The biology and functional morphology of Coralliophaga lithophagella (Bivalvia: Arcticoidea: Trapezidae): An abyssate, deep-water, nestler from the Açores. With comparative notes on the estuarine Trapezium liratum from Hong Kong

Abstract

Coralliophaga lithophagella is a nestler of basaltic rocks in the deeper waters (∼57–360 m) of the Açores and of shallower limestone karst in the Mediterranean where it predominately occurs in empty lithophagine burrows. In the Açores, because of low oceanic productivity and the basaltic, un-boreable, substratum, C. lithophagella is but 50% the shell length of continental European conspecifics and the shell's postero-dorsal margin is growth elevated to enhance particle capture. This is also achieved with relatively enormous ctenidia, minute labial palps and a simplified intestine. Unusually amongst the Trapezidae, C. lithophagella is abyssate and the foot is reduced. Also atypically, and during ontogeny, the shell enlarges postero-dorsally to facilitate particle capture. Anatomical features of the representatives of the constituent genera of the Trapezidae are compared one with another and with Arctica islandica (Arcticidae), the constituent families of the Arcticoidea. It is concluded that the Trapezidae constitutes a discrete clade of epibenthic nestlers, possibly descended from an endobenthic arcticoid ancestor, and showing a trend towards a reduction in shell and hinge complexity. The status of Fluviolanatus subtorta with mantle margins filled with single-celled algae and putatively assigned to the Trapezidae, awaits molecular confirmation.