Psiloteredo megotara (Hanley in Forbes & Hanley, 1848) - Big-ear or Drifting shipworm (Marine Bivalve Images)

Scientific and European Names:
Psiloteredo megotara, Big-ear shipworm, Drifting shipworm, Psiloteredo, Shipworm, Skibspaeleorm, Scheepsworm, Teredinidae.

Images featured of this species were not taken in the Devon and Cornwall region. The images are of shells kindly loaded to me for the purposes of study, and after finding shipworms locally in Penzance.

Shipworms are notoriously difficult to identify and almost impossible to identify with any surity in the field. It is hoped that in providing a range of images of species here it may well help people identify and record species of shipworm, or at least give them a better idea of what they dealing with.

There are currently 11 species of shipworms that have been found in the UK, some are considered native, some are not. I say currently because there's always the chance of finding something new on wood that has floated around the Atlantic for some time.

Species found in the UK -
Lyrodus bipartitus
Lyrodus pedicellatus
Psiloteredo megotara
= Teredo navalis
Teredora malleolus
Teredothyra excavata
Bankia bipennata
Bankia fimbriatula
Bankia gouldi
Nausitora fusticula
Nototeredo norvagica
Spathoteredo spatha

A big thank you to Dr. Jan Light of the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland for help with this page.

If anyone has material of species not featured here and are prepared to loan them to me, please get in touch. E-Mail.

APHOTOMARINE

An Educational Photographic Resource and Stock Image Library
of the Sea, Maritime Environment, Marine and Rockpool Life in the
Coastal Waters of South-West England by David Fenwick.

APHOTOMARINE

An Educational Photographic Resource and Stock Image Library of the Sea, Maritime Environment, Marine and Rockpool Life in the Coastal Waters of South-West England by David Fenwick.

An Educational Photographic Resource and Stock Image Library
of the Sea, Maritime Environment, Marine and Rockpool Life in the
Coastal Waters of South-West England by David Fenwick.