From debris entangled in fishing nets. Fishing area Toroneos gulf at ~30 m depth.
Saw dozens (but it was a windy day, there was not much visibility). A colleague had seen hundreds in previous days, including groups forming rows on the sea floor.
Interesting link about the discovery/recording of this species in the Solent:
Paired Sand Gaper valves. Left valve shown uppermost with the more pointed posterior on the right. There is evidence of the periostracum so a fairly fresh shell. The spoon shaped chondrophore which is typical of Mya species can be seen in the second picture. The pointed posterior rules out Mya truncata
One of the curved Ensis species, of which there are three: Ensis ensis, Ensis magnus and Ensis leei.
Ensis ensis is reaches a maximum size of 120mm and specimen Is 145mm. This species is strongly curved and tapers towards the posterior. The specimen is roughly parallel. Thus ruled out.
Enis leei has an S-shaped pallial sinus. The posterior adductor scar is less than its own length from the pallial sinus. The anterior adductor scar is just longer than the ligament. Thus ruled out.
Ensis magnus can reach 150mm, and has a U-shaped pallial sinus. The posterior adductor scar is 1 to 1.5 times its own length from the pallial sinus. The anterior adductor scar is significantly longer than the ligament. This seems the best candidate.
See (Old names used):
https://naturalhistory.museumwales.ac.uk/BritishBivalves/browserecord.php?-recid=52
and
https://conchsoc.org/spAccount/ensis-arcuatus
My fourth, maybe final, observation of this delight.
Partnered with -
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18435310
and
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18270468
It was once known once as the Hartlepool Horn Limpet.
HERE
It is worth reading on a little to get a feel for the language used in those days.
This was at a time when it was fashionable for biologists to vie with each other, often re-describing a well-known species again and again in the hope of attribution in the Nature journals of the day. Known then by a few as the Horn-shell, it was found on a beach in Hartlepool UK by James Petiver (c. 1665 – c. 2 April 1718)
The little jeweil-of-a-shell was known to, and named by, Linnaeus in 1758.
But I suspect he did not handle the late stage shell which, for a few years, was considered a separate species with various popular names. One, which hung on for years, was Patina pellucida leavis (Pennant, 1777)
But in 1778 Emanuel Mendes da Costa wrote
"This species of Limpet in its states of young and old is extremely different that it seems two distinct species and for such authors have both figured and described them."
The rest, of course, is history
Collaret de sorra. Posta del cargol de lluna.
I have visited 10 distilleries where this fungus is rampant. Usually expresses as sooty staining on external walls, nearby trees, signposts and street furniture. It forms on structures up to 600 metres (downwind?) away from Distilleries and Bond Warehouses. It is known to cause unsightly staining on nearby modern dwellings.
It is granular and can be scraped from the surface and cultivated. Here we see examples on structures at the Blair Athol Distillery, as well as one or two from other locations..
3 Pictures showing the distinctive spore chains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baudoinia_compniacensis
(Edited 22 Dec)
At first glance you may think I have made a mistake here. But ALL the shells are of Patella pellucida.
These are late-stage shells. Probably in their third, up to fifth year, the young molluscs make their way from the frond of, mostly, kelp to the lower parts of the stipes (stems). There, they feed into the tough tissue and take on a horn-like colour and grow to an absolute max of 3cms (2.76mm in Orkney). It is these specimens that were given another name Patina pellucida leavis because they were seen for a long time as a separate species but they are not.
At this stage they loose their delightful jewelled appearance and take on the shape of the rounded stipe (stem) but retain their overall patella appearance but without ridges.
Nice specimens show remnants of the blue rays but also elusive underlying red ones.
Get your eye in and you will find this shell mixed in with common limpets, on the beaches of the north-eastern Atlantic,
the one USA record has an interesting story.
See the record - https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27054800#page/267/mode/1up
.
Follow the story here -
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18435310
.
See - https://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/detail/1298
On Quercus ilex, with mosses. Thallus with transparent hairs.
On red sandstone (Buntsandstein), South-faced. K+ red; C-; KC-. Asci > 100 spores; hyaline ascospores 4,5x2 µm