Description: A brittle, inflated broadly oval to elongate oval shell that reaches 27 mm in size. The outline is often very distorted in partsThe valves are not equal with the right valve being more convex than the left. The outside of the shell has a sculpture of uneven concentric lines and has a granular, coarse surface. The shell is white with a red-brown to yellow-brown periostracum. Hinge without teeth, there may be a small lithodesma, although this is often not present. Inside of shell white. The pallial sinus is shallow and broad.

Habitat: Rock crevices and holes in rocks in intertidal zone and beyond.

Distribution: Scattered records from around Britain and Ireland.

Similar Species: Could be confused with Thracia villosiuscula or Thracia phaseolina.

Key Identification Features:

• Broadly oval to elongate oval outline, which is often distorted in places.
• Uneven concentric lines and granular, coarse surface.
• Hinge without teeth.
• Pallial sinus shallow and broad.

Distribution Map from NBN: Ixartia distorta at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Ixartia distorta at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

WoRMS: Ixartia distorta at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Ixartia distorta (Montagu, 1803). AphiaID: 1744648.

Classification: Biota; Animalia; Mollusca; Bivalvia; Autobranchia; Heteroconchia; Euheterodonta; Anomalodesmata; Thracioidea; Thraciidae; Ixartia