| Teredo navalis Linnaeus, 1758 |
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Worldwide warm seas. Littoral to offshore, inside any kind of submerged wood from 0 to 150m deep. Synonyms: batavus, japonica, marina, novangliae, pocilliformis, sinensis etc.
« Each valve is composed of three lobes: anterior, medial and posterior. The anterior lobe [near the center of the image ] bears parallel straight striae provided with some 4000 teeth, and has a large apophysys […] that embeds the adductor muscle. The latter plays as a plunger and is used as anchorage by the animal during the period of drilling. The medial lobe is divided in two parts: the anterior part shows straight striae, much more narrowed than on the anterior lobe; the posterior part has curved striae and also bears some 10.000 teeth. Eventually, the posterior lobe is ear-shaped » ( DORIS).
In drift wood, Port-la-Nouvelle, Occitania, S. France. 7mm. Original pictures provided by S. Clanzig (FR).
– (CC BY-NC-SA) – |
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Detail of the anterior lobe (at right) and of the anterior part of the medial. Original picture provided by S. Clanzig (FR).
– (CC BY-NC-SA) – |
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| In sunken wood, Pointe des Jonquiers, Cap Sicié, Provence, S. France. Original picture provided by P. Corbrion for iNaturalist – (CC BY-NC-SA). |
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| Teredo navalis painted in G. P. Deshayes: Exploration scientifique de l’Algérie – Histoire naturelle des Mollusques, Paris 1844-1848, plate 5, via GDZ. |
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Teredo navalis in T. Brown: Illustrations of the recent conchology of Great Britain and Ireland, London 1844.
« This bivalve is seated on the wider end of a thin, white, flexuous, brittle, nearly circular, and rather abruptly tapering tube, which is internally provided with transverse septae, reaching half way across the tube. » |
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| 20-25m deep, Tombant du Lido, Bay of Villefranche, Alpes-Maritimes, SE. France. Original picture provided by F. André for iNaturalist – (CC BY-NC). |
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| 6m deep, in wrecked wood, Bozcaada island, Çanakkale, W. Marmara, NW. Turkey. 5,3mm. |
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Above and below:
This sunken wood was collected at Durrës, Albania. Original pictures provided by A. Ndoni (AL) – (CC BY-NC-SA) – |
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| As soon as a sunken wood is not protected, Teredo attacks, together with some timber-destructing crustaceans such as the Cymothoa lignorum Rathke, 1799. |