Limaria pellucida (C.B. Adams, 1848) reaches 25 mm (one inch), and has, like most species in the family Limidae, an oval-elongate shell that resembles a “distorted,” or asymmetrical, scallop. The shell is thin-walled, translucent-white, with many narrow radial ribs of irregular width and distribution. The hinge “ears” have about the same size. The clam has salmon-pink gills and relatively large translucent-white tentacles festooned with white “rings” over their entire length. Records of beached shells for Sanibel and Captiva are far and few between. The first two pairs on record in the Museum collection (one in the photo) were collected by William Brumbach in 1964, then a valve retrieved by Susan Hewitt in 2017, and the latest another valve collected by Rebecca Mensch on Island Inn beach in November 2018.
The Antillean File Clam, Limaria pellucida, collected in 1957, on Sanibel. Photos by José H. Leal.