CLASSIFICATION OF PECTEN (SCALLOP)
KINGDOM :- ANIMALIA (Multicellular eukaryotic organisms)
PHYLUM :- MOLLUSCA (Unsegmented bilaterally symmetrical and provided with visceral mass, foot and mantle.)
CLASS :- PELECYPODA OR BIVALVIA (Bivalve shell.)
ORDER :- PECTINIDA (Gills form vertical folds.)
FAMILY :- PECTINIDAE
GENUS :- Pecten
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
It is found in India and U.S.A. (Santa Barbara to Cape Sam Lucas, Monterary to the Gulf of California and New Jersey to Labrador).
HABIT AND HABITAT
Pecten lives gregariously on the sea bottom of approximately 10 fathoms deep. It feeds on microorganisms caught during respiratory water current. It is abundant among eel grass and over mud flats.
GENERAL CHARACTERSTICS OF PECTEN (SCALLOP)
- Commonly called as scallop.
- Animal is enclosed by unequal bivalved shell. Shells are easily recognised by their radiating striations with broad base and two winged ears above.
- Shell is beautifully sculptured.
- Hinge line straight and toothless.
- Animal rests on the right shell, which is white, clean and convex which has a prominent notch, where the anterior wing joins the body of the shell. The left shell is flat dark in colour.
- Shell valves are thin, light and raised into ridges and grooves, joined by straight, toothless hinge and possess growth lines. The concentric lines follow the curvature of the wavy margins. Umbo is found near hinge.
- Mantle is tentaculiferous and it enclosed viscera.
- After removing the shell liver, stomach, anterior aorta, ventricle, auricle, posterior aorta, smooth adductor muscle, rectum, anus, velar fold of mantle, striated adductor muscle, intestine, kidney, gills, ovary, guard, tentacles, foot, labial palps, anterior wings, ocelli and testes are seen.
- Margin of mantle produces velar folds with numerous sensory tentacles and stalked eyes at regular intervals. Hermaphroditic.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Scallops leap and swim by snapping the shell valves together, giving them a zigzag course.
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
The adductor muscle of scallop is very delicious and scallop-fishing is very important industry. The scallop’s adductor muscles soak water and are unfit for preservation. They swell as they absorb moisture and this process is called as ‘plumping’.
IDENTIFICATION
The animal contains radiating striations over the shell and all above features, hence it is Pecten.
