Description:-

Strong, glossy, triangularly ovate, inflated shell covered by thin, transparent, fine straw coloured periostracum. Dorsal margin strongly sloping on both sides. Round anterior and posterior edges. Indistinct and smooth lunule. Smooth shell with faint concentric growth marks. Umbones prosogyrate, large and inflated. Hinge plate thick with three cardinal teeth. Stout, distinctly notched antero lateral tooth in left valve. Shallow and feebly developed pallial sinus. Smooth internal margins. Outer shell white with a purplish tinge on the postero dorsal slope. Interior white with brown posterodorsal slope.

Threats:-

Not recorded

Remark:-

Habitat:-

Estuarine and backwaters, sand and muddy-sand bottoms. Intertidal and sublittoral waters to a depth of 20 m.

Synonyms:-

Cytherea castanea Lamarck, 1818
Cytherea corpulenta Gray, 1838
Cytherea ponderosa Schumacher, 1817
Meretrix labiosa Lamarck, 1801
Venus meretrix Linnaeus, 1758 (original combination)

References:-

Bijukumar, A. 2012. Keralatheerathe Kadal Jeevikal (Marine Animals of Kerala Coast- A Field Guide). Kerala State Biodiversity Board, Thiruvananthapauram, Kerala 304pp. (in Malayalam)
Laxmilatha, P. M..P. Sivadasan and V.G. surendranathan. 2007. Bivalve Resources and its exploitation in Malabar. Marine Fisheries information service T&Eser., No. 192, 6-10.
Laxmilatha, P., Sujatha Thomas, V.G. surendranathan, M.P. Sivadasan and N.P. Ramachandran. 2011. Bivalve resources of moorad estuary, North Kerala. Marine Fisheries information service t&Eser., No. 207. 24-25.
Ramakrishna and Dey 2010. Annotated Checklist of Indian Marine Molluscs (Cephalopoda, Bivalvia and scaphopoda): Part-1 Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occ. Paper No., 320: 1-357.