The warty Venus clam is a bivalve mollusc with two equally sized valves and can grow up to 7 cm (3”) in length. Like all the Venus shells it has a white, porcelain-like inner surface, but this one has a beige to brown outer colour and a series of 20 or more concentric ridges and with wart-like spines on the outside near the anterior and posterior margins. The ridges look almost like terracing. The warty Venus clam burrows in sand or gravel and they are found from the intertidal down to around 100m (just over 100 yds) from the Mediterranea around the Iberian Peninsula and up into the English Channel and Irish Sea. They feed by filtering phytoplankton from the water. As with other clams, these should be well spaked in running water for a couple of hours to remove any sand.before consuming to clean them.
