Venus (genus)

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Venus clam

Banded venus, Venus fasciata
(Da Costa, 1778)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Bivalvia
Subclass:	Pteriomorphia
Order:	Veneroida
Family:	Veneridae
Genus:	Venus Linnaeus, 1758

Species

See text.

Venus is a genus of bivalve molluscs in the family Veneridae. Species currently classified in this genus are generally referred to as venuses or venus clams, though because of reclassifications, there are some bivalves commonly called venus clams that are no longer placed in genus Venus. The extant species in the genus Mercenaria were also formerly classified in Venus. Some species which are called venus clams, but are not true venus, are the sunray venus, Macrocallista nimbosa, (Lightfoot), cross barred venus, Chione cancellata, (Linnaeus), lady in waiting venus, Chione intapurpurea, (Conrad), imperial venus, Chione latilirata, (Conrad), and gray pygmy venus, Chione grus, (Holmes).

Veneridae contain over four hundred known species. Of the bivalves, they are the most colorful. Species vary in shape from circular to triangular. Characteristically venus clams possess a porcelain-like shell, a complex tooth structure in the hinge, well developed escutchion and lunule and a well developed pallial sinus. Veneridae colonize the sandy ocean bottom, and their populations are often dense and large. The Veneroida order typically have a folded gill structure which is well developed for filtering out small food particles.

[edit] Species

Venus affinis (Sowerby, 1855)
Venus albina (Sowerby, 1853)
Venus casina (Linnaeus, 1758) Europe [taxonomy not verified]
Venus cassinaeformis (Yokoyama, 1926)
Venus chevreuxi (Dautzenberg, 1891)
Venus corbis (J. B. Lamarck, 1818)
Venus crenulata (Schröter, 1788)
Venus declivis (Sowerby, 1853)
Venus elegans (Gray, 1828)
Banded venus, Venus fasciata (da Costa, 1778)
Venus foveolata (Sowerby, 1853)
Striped venus, Venus gallina (Linnaeus, 1758)
Venus lamellaris (Schumacher, 1817)

Venus affinis (Sowerby, 1855)

Warty Venus, Venus verrucosa (Linnaeus, 1758)
Venus lamellata (Lamarck, 1818)
Venus lubuana (Adams and Reeve, 1850)
Venus (Gemma) manhattensis (Prime, 1862): 482-483, text fig. (syntype, missing).
Venus materna (T. Iredale, 1929)
Venus mindoroensis (Smith, 1916)
Venus nux (Gmelin, 1791) [taxonomy not verified]
Oval venus, Venus ovata (Pennant, 1777)
Venus persimilis (T. Iredale, 1930)
Venus punctigera (Dautzenberg)
Venus resticulata (Sowerby, 1853)
Venus rosalina (Rang, 1802)
Venus thomassini (Fischer and Vukadinovi, 1977)
Venus toreuma (Gould, 1851)
Venus undata (Pennant, 1777)
Venus verdensis (Dautz and Fischer, 1906)
Warty venus, Venus verrucosa (Linnaeus, 1758)
Venus verrucosa simulans (Sowerby, 1844)