Biodiversity & Conservation

Basket shell - Corbula gibba - General information

Corbula gibba

Image Dr Sebastian Holmes - Corbula gibba. Image width ca 10 mm.
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Distribution map

Corbula gibba recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

Sightings Have you seen Corbula gibba?
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Corbula gibba is not listed under any importance categories.

General information

Key Icon Researched by: Marisa Sabatini and Susie Ballerstedt Text page icon Refereed by: This information is not refereed.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy

Phylum Mollusca Snails, slugs, mussels, cockles, clams & squid
Class Bivalvia Clams, cockles, mussels, oysters, and scallops
Map icon Recorded distribution in Britain and Ireland Common and widespread on all British coasts. The species is probably more widespread than mapped but records are not readily available.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Corbula gibba is found from the low shore to considerable depths in the sublittoral, living in muddy sand and gravel.
Text page icon Description Corbula gibba has a plump, broadly oval to triangular shell up to 15 mm long. It is inequivalve, the right valve is very much larger and more convex than the left, which fits snugly into it, leaving a considerable margin of the right valve bare. The posterior margin is slightly truncate. Both valves of Corbula gibba are sculptured with coarse, concentric grooves and ridges, the left valve additionally having faint radiating lines. The beaks are turned inward and touching. The shell is dull white to cream, the interior is white with a faint pinkish or bluish tinge, sometimes with blotches of yellow. The pallial line is very faint and there is a slight posterior indentation or sinus.

This review can be cited as follows:

Marisa Sabatini and Susie Ballerstedt 2008. Corbula gibba. Basket shell. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 23/05/2013]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesfullreview.php?speciesID=3042>