Kellia 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

Kellia Turton, 1822

Kellia Turton, 1822 . Type species (subsequent designation, Récluz 1844): Mya suborbicularis ( Montagu, 1803) . Recent, North Atlantic.

Chironia Deshayes, 1839 . Type species (monotypy): Chironia laperousii Deshayes, 1839 .

Diplodontina Stempell, 1899 . Type species (monotypy): Diplodontina tumbesiana Stempel, 1899 . Recent, Chile.

Description.

Shell subovate to ovate-elongate, inflated, subequilateral, equivalve; umbos prosogyrate; sculpture of commarginal ribs, striae, or growth checks; periostracum thin, translucent, green to yellow, dehiscent to adherent; hinge plate narrow; two small cardinal teeth in left valve, one cardinal tooth in right valve; one elongate, posterior lateral tooth in both valves; ligament internal, robust, in elongate resilifer.

Discussion.

There has been much taxonomic confusion with members of Kellia , especially in the southern hemisphere, and the genus needs a global revision. Kamenev (2004) documented many species of Kellia from the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. The functional morphology of the genus has been documented by Oldfield (1961) and the sperm morphology by Jespersen and Lützen (2007)