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VENERIDAE 417
storms between Seal Beach and Huntington Beach. Once known as C.
nobilis Reeve.
Genus Saxidomus Conrad 1837
Shell large, slightly gaping posteriorly, hinge with 4 or 5 cardinal teeth
in the right valve, 4 in the left. Pallial sinus long and fairly narrow.
Saxidojims nuttalli Conrad Common Washington Clam
Humboldt Bay, California, to Lower California.
Plate 31I
3 to 4 inches in length, oblong, with the beaks nearer the anterior end;
heavy, with coarse, crowded, concentric ribs. Color a dull, dirty, reddish
brown to gray with rust stains. Interior glossy-white, commonly with a
flush of purple at the posterior margins. No lunule. Ligament large. Valves
slightly gaping posteriorly. Young specimens less than 2 inches are thin-
shelled, somewhat glossy and with pretty, mauve, radial streaks on the dorsal
edge, both in front and behind the beaks. A very common species which is
edible. Also called the Butter Clam.
Saxidomus gigantea Deshayes Smooth Washington Clam
Aleutian Islands to Monterey, California.
Possibly this is only an ecologic variation or an example of a geographical
gradient within a species. It is similar to typical 7JUttalIi, but generally lacks
the rust-stain color and rarely, if ever, develops the prominent concentric
ridges. This is the commonest and best food clam in Alaska.
Subfamily DOSINIINAE
Genus Dosinia Scopoh 1777
Subgenus Dosinidia Dall 1902
Dosinia elegajis Conrad Elegant Dosinia
West Florida to Texas and south.
2 to 3 inches in length, circular, compressed, glossy, straw-yellow with
numerous even, concentric ridges (20 to 25 per inch in adults). Moderately
common. Do not confuse with D. discus.
Dosinia discus Reeve Disk Dosinia
Plate 38-0; figure 81 c
Virginia to Florida, the Gulf States and the Bahamas.