PINCTADA VULGARIS (PEARL OYSTER)
CLASSIFICATION OF PINCTADA VULGARIS (PEARL OYSTER)
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 :- OSTREIDA (Gills form vertical folds.)
FAMILY :- MARGARITIDAE
GENUS :- Pinctada
SPECIES :- vulgaris
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
It has wide distribution except in cold zones. It is very common in the Gulf of Kutch. Tropical and temperate seas, Pacific and Atlantic coast.
HABIT AND HABITAT
Pinctada lives in the Gulf of California and in West Indian sea water.
GENERAL CHARACTERSTICS OF PINCTADA VULGARIS (PEARL OYSTER)
- Commonly called as Indian pearl oyster.
- Shell valves are unequal and the hinge line is straight, produced at each end into a short ear or wing like process.
- Left shell is large, convex and permanently attached to rocks by a strong cable of byssal threads.
- Right shell is smaller and thinner and covers viscera.
- Surface of the shell is coarse, irregular and ruffled and bears radiating bands terminating at the margins into finger like projections, which may disappear in order specimens.
- Like Pecten, there is a single adductor muscle.
- Right and left mantle lobes are quite free.
- Pearl oysters feed in the same manner as clams.
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
Oyster’s shell secretes pearls whenever any insect enters the shell and causes irritation. They are cultivated in pearl oyster industry. Most of our germ pearls are obtained from pearl oyster.
IDENTIFICATION
The animal contains ear like processes and all above features, hence it is Pinctada vulgaris.
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