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MALLEIDAE |
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Malleus albus Lamarck, 1819 Description: Shape hammer-like, elongate, contorted, with long anterior and posterior ears. Hinge with a triangular ligamental area divided by a triangular pit with semicircular chondrophore below. Interior nacreous dorsally surrounded by wide non-nacreous zone that is wider at ventral margin. Muscle scar purple-black. Exterior surface irregular, usually eroded. Shell colour dirty white, with dark muscle scar. Size: Up to 200 mm in height. Distribution: Indo-West Pacific. In Australia, from south-western WA around northern Australia, to Sydney, NSW, and rarely to southern NSW. Habitat: Lives on mud flats or sand flats down to 10 m depth, partly buried, anchored by the byssus when juvenile and wedged by the anterior and posterior wings of the shell when adult. Comparison: Malleus malleus (Linnaeus, 1758) is a similar tropical species that does not occur in NSW. It is black in colour internally and externally. Synonymy: Malleus novelesianus Iredale, 1931 is a synonym, based on specimens from Broken Bay, NSW. Fig. 1: 7829-1 Pittwater, Broken Bay, NSW (C.114944) |
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