Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Megapitaria aurantiaca
almeja anaranjada, Orange venus
Length: 112 mm (over 4 inches); height: 85 mm; diameter: 59 mm.
Shallow water (less than 200 m depth), intertidal, 0-10 m depth.
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Mollusca
Class
Bivalvia
Order
Venerida
Superfamily
Veneroidea
Family
Veneridae
Genus
Megapitaria
Species
aurantiaca
Taxon category: Accepted
CAS: 38889, CDRS: 666, 1536, FNRS-Belgian expedition to the Galapagos, 1984, MHNG expedition to the Galapagos, 1993
Origin: Native
Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.
Distribution: Baja California to Perú and Salinas, Ecuador (Galapagos Islands)
- Finet, Y. (1991) The Marine Mollusks of the Galapagos Islands. In: Galápagos Marine Invertebrate. Taxonomy, Biogeography, and Evolution in Darwin's Islands. Plenum Press. New York and London, p. 253-280.
- Finet, Y. (2001) The marine mollusks of the Galapagos Islands: a documented faunal list. Editions du Muséum d' Histoire naturelle, Genève, 237 pp.
- Fischer, W. Krupp, F., Schneider, W., Sommer, C., Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (1995) Guia FAO para la identificación de especies para los fines de la pesca. Pacifico centro-oriental. Vol. I. Plantas e Invertebrados. FAO, Roma, 646 pp.
- Hickman, C.P. Jr. Finet, Y. (1999) A Field Guide to the Marine Molluscs of Galápagos. Sugar Spring Press, Lexington, Virginia, 150 pp.
- Horton, T. Horton, T., Kroh, A., Ahyong, S., Bailly, N., Boyko, C. B., Brandão, S. N., Gofas, S., Hooper, J. N. A., Hernandez, F., Holovachov, O., Mees, J., Molodtsova, T. N., Paulay, G., Decock, W., Dekeyzer, S., Poffyn, G., Vandepitte, L., Vanhoorne, B., Adlard, R., ... Zhao, Z. (2021) World Register of Marine Species. Available from https://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ.
- Keen, A.M. (1958) Sea Shells of Tropical West America. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, 1st edition, 624 pp.
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Megapitaria aurantiaca", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=8626. Accessed 30 October 2026.