Montacuta Turton, 1822

Valentich-Scott, Paul, Griffiths, Charles, Landschoff, Jannes, Li, Ruiqi & Li, Jingchun, 2024, Bivalves of superfamily Galeommatoidea (Mollusca, Bivalvia) from western South Africa, with observations on commensal relationships and habitats, ZooKeys 1207, pp. 301-323 : 301-323

Montacuta Turton, 1822

Montacuta Turton, 1822 . Type species (subsequent designation) Ligula substriata Montagu, 1808 . Recent, North Atlantic Ocean.

Description.

Shell small (length less than 5 mm), subovate to subelliptical, moderately thin, translucent to opaque, gaping ventrally in some; sculpture of commarginal striae and ribs, weak, widely spaced radial ribs in some; periostracum thin to thick, translucent to dark brown; hinge plate narrow, each valve with low anterior cardinal tooth; ligament internal, large, elongate; mantle sparsely papillate, reflected, covering some of outer shell surface; without mantle tentacles; foot elongate, thin, trigonal, heel absent; with one demibranch on each side.

Discussion.

While this genus is widely distributed in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, and eastern Australia, this is only the second record from southern Africa. Kamenev (2008) provides a comprehensive description of the genus along with SEM images of the type species, Montacuta substriata .