Lutraria oblonga (Gmelin, 1791)
Southern Irish Sea, Channel Islands to Sénégal, Mediterranean. Also in the Red Sea (P. Vine: Red Sea Invertebrates, London 1986). Burrowed in muddy sand from lower intertidal down to at least 50m deep. Suspension feeder.

Original taxon: Chama oblonga.
50-80m deep, off Málaga, Andalucia, S. Spain. 98mm.
Some differences between oblonga and lutraria: the umbones are more anteriorly placed in oblonga; the two branches of the V-shaped cardinal tooth of the left valve do reach the edge in oblonga, they do not in lutraria; the angle of the V is ≥ 90° in lutraria, always < 90° in oblonga. Above: subadult from Málaga, with the summits very anteriorly placed. 50mm.
Lutraria oblonga in plate XIII of Forbes & Hanley: A history of British Mollusca and their shells vol. 4, London 1853.
The species in J. G. Hidalgo: Moluscos marinos de España, Portugal y las Baleares, Madrid 1870, plate VI…
…and in G. P. Deshayes: “Hist. Nat. Mollusques t. I”, Exploration scientifique de l’Algérie, Paris 1844-1867, plate 37. The siphons are of a deep purple-red at their extremities, which diverge almost at right angles.
Conform to the drawing displayed hereabove, a specimen laying on the foreshore after a violent storm at Siracusa, SE. Sicily. Original picture provided by A. Brancato (IT).
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