Boring Mussels
Lithophaga
Lithophaga, the date mussels, are a genus of medium-sized marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mytilidae. Some of the earliest fossil Lithophaga shells have been found in Mesozoic rocks from the Alps and from Vancouver Island.
The shells of species in this genus are long and narrow with parallel sides. The animals bore into stone or coral rock with the help of pallial gland secretions, hence the systematic name Lithophaga, which means "stone-eater". Their club-shaped borings are given the trace fossil name Gastrochaenolites.
9 branches of this genus, most-observed first
European Date Mussel
speciesLithophaga lithophaga
Giant Date Mussel
speciesLithophaga antillarum
Cylinder Date Mussel
speciesLithophaga teres
Black Date Mussel
speciesLithophaga nigra
Lithophaga caperata
speciesLithophaga caperata
Rock Eater
speciesLithophaga robusta
Lithophaga zitteliana
speciesLithophaga zitteliana
Lithophaga punctata
speciesLithophaga punctata
Lithophaga cylindrica
speciesLithophaga cylindrica
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Lithophaga in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 196223.