title: Pleurolucinafrom the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans: a new intertidal species from Curaçao with unusual shell microstructure (Mollusca, Bivalvia, Lucinidae).
abstract: A new shallow water species of the lucinid bivalvePleurolucinais described from Curaçao in the southern Caribbean Sea and compared with known species of the genus from the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. Although confused with the Floridian speciesPleurolucina leucocyma, it is most similar to the eastern PacificPleurolucina undata. As in all studied lucinids, the new species possesses symbiotic bacteria housed in the ctenidia. The shell microstructure is unusual with repeated and intercalated conchiolin layers that have sublayers of 'tulip-shaped' calcareous spherules. Predatory drillings by naticid gastropods frequently terminate at the conchiolin layers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Emily A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Glover
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Taylor
keywords: Bacterial symbionts; Caribbean; Lucinidae; Pleurolucina; conchiolin layers; defensive adaptation