Original taxon: Mactra triangularis.
Synonym: minutissima Montagu. Variants fusca and radiata.
Shallow water shell grit, at the foor of the citadel, south of the harbour, Methóni, Messinia, SW. Peloponnese, SW. Greece. 4,2mm.
Astarte triangularis in Forbes & Hanley: A history of British Mollusca and their shells, London 1853, plate XXX, fig. 4.
« Mactra with a strong, sub-triangular, opaque, white shell ; umbo prominent, obtuse ; sides a little unequal ; hinge strong ; primary tooth in one valve large, bifid ; in the other two small teeth, with a triangular cavity between ; lateral ones depressed. Inside white, not very glossy, margin strongly crenated. Length one eighth of an inch ; breadth rather less. There are no perceptible striae on this shell, yet it has very little gloss. The hinge does not strictly correspond with the characters of the genus, but we could not with more propriety place it elsewhere. It is a singular shell, and cannot be confounded for the young of any other species. » – G. Montagu: Testacea Britannica, London 1803, via BHL.
« Mactra with a strong, sub-triangular, opaque, white shell ; umbo prominent, obtuse ; sides a little unequal ; hinge strong ; primary tooth in one valve large, bifid ; in the other two small teeth, with a triangular cavity between ; lateral ones depressed. Inside white, not very glossy, margin strongly crenated. Length one eighth of an inch ; breadth rather less. There are no perceptible striae on this shell, yet it has very little gloss. The hinge does not strictly correspond with the characters of the genus, but we could not with more propriety place it elsewhere. It is a singular shell, and cannot be confounded for the young of any other species. » – G. Montagu: Testacea Britannica, London 1803, via BHL.
« Sculpture: extremely fine concentric lines and coarser, irregular growth stops. Margin: strongly crenulate in adults, smooth in juveniles » (MBSBI). – Methóni. 3-4mm.
