Shellfish are the fun part. Squad: Veneroid = Venerids Who walks on one leg along the sea path

Round and slightly elongated in shape, the venerka mollusk (vongole) or vongole belongs to mollusks with dicotyledonous valves. There are two types of venerka mollusk, they live in the Mediterranean Sea.

Shellfish that are smaller are called venus cockerel or vongole comuni. Large vongole mollusks are called Japanese lattice venerki or vongole veraci, they are also divided into several species. The main difference between subspecies of Japanese lattice clams is the habitat of each of the subspecies. Outwardly, these subspecies differ from each other only in a shade of shell color and pattern. The color of the clam shell valves can be from bluish to brown. The venerka mollusk is small in size, its shell does not exceed 5 centimeters. Inside is the body and mantle. The clam does not have a head, but has one leg, designed to move the vongole.

The venerka mollusk lives at a depth exceeding 10 meters. Vongole clam is harvested at low tide, on the shores of the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. Vongole is the most popular among Italians.

It is worth noting that the main difference between all subspecies of Japanese lattice mollusks lies in the habitat. Even experts with the naked eye will not be able to distinguish one subspecies of the Japanese vongole from another. The venus shell differs in color depending on the type of mollusk, and besides the habitat. The color of the mollusk can vary from dark brown to light blue or even dirty white.

It is noteworthy that the wings of the vongole mollusk have a heterogeneous color and may contain spots or patterns in the form of zigzags and stripes. The maximum recorded size of Venus shells is 5 cm. Inside the vongole shell is the body of the mollusk, as well as the mantle. It is worth noting that the biological structure of the mollusk is interesting in the absence of a head and the presence of one leg, which helps the vongola to move.

Usually, the venerka mollusk chooses to live in places whose depth reaches 12 meters. Such a mollusk as a venus is harvested on the coast of the Tyrrhenian, as well as the Adriatic Sea at low tide. The clam venerka is especially popular with m in Italy. It is worth noting that, unlike oysters and mussels, the vongole mollusk is not cultivated, but is harvested exclusively in the so-called wild or natural environment a habitat.

It is interesting that the venerka mollusk is harvested both by hand and seafood industrial way. Like all representatives of bivalve mollusks, venerki, due to their structure, pass sea water through their filters. For this reason, it is strictly forbidden to use the shellfish venerka in the form, so as not to get severe poisoning or an intestinal infection.

The mollusk is used to prepare both cold and hot main dishes. A real delicacy and a recognized masterpiece of the Italian culinary tradition is marinated venerca clams. Peeled venerki is used to make risotto, as well as pasta with seafood. The venerka mollusk is not only tasty, but, like all seafood, it is an incredibly healthy food product for humans, the chemical composition of which contains a large number of vitamins, as well as macro- and microelements.

The venerka mollusk is harvested not only manually, but also industrially.

The calorie content of venerka is no more than 86 kcal per 100 grams of product.

Venus composition
It is impossible not to mention the benefits of the vongole mollusk. It's extraordinary useful product, it contains vitamins: PP, B12, B9, B6, B5, B2, B1, E, D, A. Minerals: zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, iron, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium.

Venus in cooking
The venerka mollusk cannot be consumed in the form, because, like all bivalves, it passes sea water through itself, like through a filter, and there is a chance of getting poisoned or an intestinal infection if the mollusk is not processed.

There are many ways to prepare clam, but the most popular is pickled clam. It is also used to make risotto, pasta with seafood.

Mollusks of the Black Sea and their shells

Shell - this is both an external skeleton and a house that they build for themselves bivalves and gastropods - and all other mollusks, except for some special groups - such as nudibranch mollusks, or octopuses. The mollusk grows - the shell also grows.

The shell, layer by layer, is folded by special cells of the edge of the mantle, capable of forming limestone crystals. from salts sea ​​water. In winter, mollusks grow more slowly, and in summer - faster; therefore, seams and convex growth rings remain on the shell (not to be confused with the normal concentric sculpture of a shell, for example, in a Venus) - they can be used to calculate the age of a mollusk - as in annual rings on a tree cut.

Only a few bivalves live on hard surfaces: the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and mytilaster Mytilaster lineatus used for attaching to stones and stems of algae, a bundle of the strongest threads - byssus, and oysters grow to a stone and to each other with their shells. Oyster shells Ostrea edulis during life they were white-green-pink, and now we find more and more black valves, because they have lain in the ground for a long time, where everything turns black from hydrogen sulfide. Folas Stonegrinder Pholas dactylus drills his own minks in the stones with a sink-drill.

Sometimes found camelina Pitar Rudis- he lives deeper than 10m, and his colorful shells get to the beach less often. For the same reason, modiola shells are very rarely found on the shore. Modiolus phaseolinus; but it is probably more than all the other mollusks in the Black Sea! Their doors are strewn all over the bottom of the sea. lives modiola deeper than 30m.

gastropods - Gastropoda - prefer to crawl on the firmament. Gibula snails tongue- grater (it's called a radula) young algae are scraped off the stones. Some small - and very beautiful - snails live only on the branches of large algae, these include bittium (children call them "carrots"), nana ("button"), tricolor - tricolia.

Chinese hat Calyptraea chinensis- one of the few snails living on the sand: the entire mollusk is placed in a tiny half-curl of the shell, and its wide hat is needed so as not to fall into unsteady ground.

The history of the rapana in the Black Sea -Evolution of the Black Sea Ecosystem

Life cycle rapana

Both bivalves and gastropods do not spend their entire lives at the bottom, and do not always look the way we are used to seeing them. At the beginning of their life, they- microscopic inhabited the water column, part of the plankton. For example, a female rapana lays - sticks thick white brushes of capsules with caviar to any hard surface under water - we often find them on the beach. A tiny larva, the veliger, hatches from the eggs. Veliger can swim with the help of cilia, feeds on smaller plankton, overgrows with a shell - and after two weeks sits on the bottom, turning into a small rapanchik. About the role planktonic larvae of benthic organisms - pages and .

In 2005, there was an unprecedented settling of larvae of rapana near the Caucasian coast - in May, any hard surface under water was covered with tiny - up to 3 mm, covered with sharp spines, young rapanas - up to 5 pieces per 1 cm 2 of the surface! By the end of summer, young rapans had eaten almost all bivalve mollusks near the shore. And the rapans, settled directly on the ropes- collectors of the Utrish mussel and oyster farm near Anapa - destroyed half of the crop.

Here are photos of shells from the beaches of Orlyonka and Anapa. Some of them are very small and difficult to find; some are very rare. Let's wander along the beaches and see what the waves will bring to our feet. These shells are the signs that the sea gives us - about the life hidden in its depths.

Gastropoda - snails - Gastropoda - Black Sea - soft bottoms

• Kingdom: Animalia, Zoobiota = Animals (Invertebrates)
• Type: Mollusca Linnaeus, 1758 = Mollusca, soft-bodied
• Class: Bivalvia, Lamellibranchia Linnaeus, 1758 = Bivalves, laminabranchs
• Squad: Veneroid H. Adams et A. Adams, 1856 = Veneroids
• Family: Cardiidae (= Tridacnidae) = Tridacni
• Family: Veneridae Rafinesque, 1815 = Veneridae
• Species: Chamelea (= Venus) gallina (Linnaeus, 1758) = Venus

Species: Chamelea (= Venus) gallina = Venus

Synonyms of this species: Venus gallina Linnaeus, 1758; Venus striatula EM da Costa, 1778; Venus sinuata Born, 1778; Venus corrugatula Krynicki, 1837; Venus nucleus Statuti, 1880; Venus nuculata Locard, 1892; Chione schottii Dall, 1902. According to the latest data, the correct Latin name is now Chamelea gallina.

Originally the mollusc Venerka from mediterranean sea was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as Venus Gallina. Other zoologists, perhaps suggesting that a different species lives in northern waters, described it in 1778 as Pectunculus striatulus. However, even Linnaeus later noted that his species Venus Gallina also lives in Oceano Norvegico (in the ocean waters near Norway). In 1952, Dodge justified the generic name as Chamelea and it is now considered valid.

There are currently two recognized subspecies of Venus: the Mediterranean Venus C. g. Gallina, and Atlantic Venus C. g. striatum.

The shell is strong and thick, with two valves of equal size. Venus can be up to five centimeters long. The shell shape is broadly triangular but asymmetrical, with a rounded anterior margin but somewhat elongated posterior margin. The periostracum is thin and the ligaments connecting the two valves are narrow. The shell is sculpted with fifteen concentric ridges. The color is whitish, cream or light yellow, sometimes shiny, and usually with three red-brown rays.

The distribution of molluscs of the genus Chamelea covers eastern part Atlantic coast, from Norway and the British Isles, to Portugal, Morocco, Madeira and canary islands. They are also found in the Mediterranean and Black Seas and in abundance in the Adriatic Sea.

Venerki live under the surface of clean and silty sand at a depth of five to twenty meters. It is a filtering species that feeds on a variety of algae, bacteria and small particles detritus.

Venerka is used for food. Thus, in 1995, the total catch was about 42,000 tons, and biggest booty of this species is noted in Italy and Turkey. Most of the shells are mainly dredged, but some have been taken by bottom trawling. At present, aquaculture of Venerka is also beginning to develop in Italy.

Chamelea gallina (Linne, 1758)
Syn. Venus gallina

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Type: Mollusca (clams)

Class: Bivalvia (bivalve)

Order: Veneroid

Family: Veneridae

Genus: Chamelea

Individual: Chamelea gallina

It was this species, described by Carl Linnaeus as Venus gallina - Sea Venus, that gave the name to the whole order Venerida, numbering 29 modern families.

The shell is round-triangular, with small umbos, strongly shifted forward. The ribs are frequent, irregular, sometimes there are additional ribs in the back. In addition, the ribs often branch out. The coloration is white with three wide brown radial stripes. Inner surface white with a wide purple spot in the back.

Shell length up to 43 mm, height - up to 39, width - up to 24 mm.

In the Black Sea, it is common at a depth of 4 - 55 m, mainly on sand. It is also found in the Sea of ​​Azov.

The species is distributed in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Black and Azov Seas.

On the beaches in the Blagoveshchenka area, there are classic-colored veneres (on the first two photos), as well as without stripes, almost white or with a bluish blurred stripe (next two photos). Quite often there are veneers of a monophonic red color (two recent photos). The shape of the shells is the same everywhere, they differ only in color. Most of the shells are colored like classic venerki (with brown stripes), white and red are much less. I don't know if all these veners belong to the same species. The shape of the shell is the same, they differ only in color.

The following mollusks live in the Black Sea:

• teredo and rapana
• venerka and donax
• heartlets and scapulars
• byssus and calyptrea
• stone grinders and folas
• oysters and scallops

We will tell you more about the details of the life of each of these mollusks, the history of origin and appearance in the Black Sea.

Which mollusk in the Black Sea has a drill on its nose?

The little teredo shipworm was once a thunderstorm for everyone traveling the world. This bivalve mollusk, so similar to a worm, with its shell at the front end of the body, drilled many passages in the wood from which the ships were made, and turned them into dust. Teredo eats wood and lives in it. Now people have figured out how to protect the wooden lining of ships with poisonous impregnation, and the teredo mollusk drills wood and tree branches that fall into the sea.

Where does the shipworm come from in the Black Sea?

This is what mangrove trees look like. The shipworm lives on their roots.

Natural habitat of the shipworm mangrove forests. Their closest location to the Black Sea is the Persian Gulf. Keeping individuals in ports Persian Gulf reaches 50 per square centimeter. It is believed that it was from here in the body of merchant ships that this mollusk was brought to the Black Sea. More recently, in the 50s of the 20th century, a shipworm destroyed piles in the ports of the Black Sea in just 2 years. This is not surprising, given that its length can reach 1 meter, in the Black Sea the documented length of the shipworm is 62 centimeters, and the channels that it leaves in the wood reach 2 meters in length and 5 cm in diameter.

Where did the rapans come from in the Black Sea?

These large sea snails beautiful shells, decorated with orange mother-of-pearl - uninvited guests in our sea. Perhaps they sailed from the Pacific Ocean to the bottom. Rapana females lay their eggs on hard objects: on sticks, on the backs of crabs and even on the shells of their relatives. So caviar in rigid protective tubes travels across the seas, over the waves.

In 1947, a new inhabitant was first discovered in the Black Sea - predatory snail rapana.

Which carnivorous mollusk has teeth on its tongue?

Outwardly harmless rapan turned out to be a voracious predator. With his tongue - a radula, he drills through the shells of bivalves, injects poison and paralyzes the inhabitant of the shell. Then he opens the shell and sucks it out.

Who in the Black Sea ate all the oysters, scallops and cuttings?

Although the Rapan has been living in the Black Sea for only half a century, it has caused great damage to its inhabitants. Unfortunately, in the Black Sea, the rapana did not have a worthy opponent who would eat these voracious snails. In the Pacific Ocean, rapans are eaten by starfish, but not salty enough for them. So it turned out that the rapans multiplied and destroyed almost all scallops, oysters and sea cuttings. And now in the Black Sea it has become two times less different types shellfish.

Where is the sea date hiding?

In soft gray-green marl stones, you can see the passages drilled by mollusks. This is the work of a stone-boring mollusk - folas or sea date. The folas has a worm-like body, at the front end of which is a shell with teeth, similar to. With the help of this shell, the sea date drills a hole in the rocks to hide in it. It feeds on plankton.

When and how does a mollusk get its home?

homeless maggots sea ​​shellfish travel by sea. At this time, future mollusks feed on particles of dead animals, plants and algae. Gradually the body of the larva changes. She settles to the bottom, develops and builds a house, turning into a clam, which we can see on the beach.

A shell is a shell in which a mollusk lives. He builds his house with the help of his body - the mantle. The edge of the mantle lays down layers of shell, forming annual rings, just like in trees. Thus, it is easy to determine how old the shell is.

The sea wave decorates the sandy shore with many colorful shells. Often shells of the same shape come in different colors. For example, a venerka is white and black, orange and yellow. The color of the shells depends on the conditions of their life: normal shells are two-colored, lying in the ground - black, thrown back to the bottom - yellow. Most often there are white shells - their upper layers are erased on the sand.

Who locks up his sea house?

On the sandy shore you can find a variety of shells - the former houses of bivalve mollusks. Mollusks build them themselves, this is their house and their skeleton, which supports and protects the mollusk from danger. Most often found on a sandy beach donax, smooth and shiny, so similar to a butterfly. Multi-colored venerki, which children sometimes call sailors for their stripes, literally cover the surf. Become a welcome find cockles and large white-and-red skafarki, thrown out by a storm wave. All bivalve mollusks at the moment of danger slam shut on the lock, which is located at the top of the shell. The teeth enter the depressions and firmly grip the valves, and strong muscles hold the valves so that the mollusk does not become prey for a crab or. Shells vary in the shape of the locks.

Who walks on one leg along the sea path?

Bivalve molluscs move along the seabed with the help of muscular legs. They pull it out of the valves, hook on the sand and pull themselves up to a new place, leaving furrows in the sand behind them. So on seabed intricate patterns appear.

Why are the Black Sea mussels called homebodies?

Mussels - bivalves, but they cannot swim like scallops, or move along the bottom and hide in the ground like other mollusks. Therefore, mussels have adapted to attach their shells to pitfalls with the help of strong threads that their bodies produce. Mussels live in colonies and hold on to each other for strength. If the mussels have to move to another place, the mollusk separates a bundle of its threads - the byssus, and then releases new threads and plunges them deep into the ground, like roots. Since mussels are homebodies, they are successfully grown on marine plantations. This mollusk is tasty and very useful for humans, even medicines are made from it.

Which clam wears a hat?

Sometimes on the sandy shore there are shells that look like a small cap. Just think, this is the house of a tiny snail with a Chinese hat - calyptrea, which sits in a small curl! This mollusk has adapted in its own way to live on soft ground: a wide, light hat does not sink into the sand, and the shape of the cap gives stability to the snail's house.