AMEIXA MACHA

Callista chione

AMEIXAS MACHA

VENERIDAE

Dende as Illas Británicas ata o MediterráneoEnterrada ata 100 m de profundidade
APUNTES COPIADOS DE ICTIO-TERM:

Concha sólida, ovalada, con las valvas simétricas, muy pulidas, con finísimas esculturas concéntricas

Notas sociolingüísticas

Callista chione, fácil de reconocer por su superficie lisa y brillante y por su gran tamaño, es denominada concha fina en toda la costa gaditano-onubense, pero muchos informantes "tal vez por no dedicarse a la recolección de mariscos- no conocen a esta especie o la confunden con otras. Por otra parte, pese a ser una especie más frecuente en el litoral surmediterráneo (de ahí la voz almeja malagueña), muchos informantes onubenses la identifican correctamente. Los nombres de papa, pepeta y cebollera se deben al parecido simultáneo de este bivalvo con la patata (Solanum tuberosum), por su concha globosa, y con la cebolla (Allium cepa), por el color marrón del periostraco (capa externa de la concha) similar al de la piel de esta planta hortense. El nombre de almeja chochona, obtenido de un informante de Cádiz, procede de una confusión con la almeja chocha (Venerupis pullastra), no incluida en Ictioterm.

NOTES FROMN WIKIPEDIA:

Smooth clam

The smooth clam, Callista chione, (also sometimes classified as Cytherea chione or Meretrix chione) is a rather large, temperate, marine, bivalvemollusc that inhabits sandy bottoms or with small pebbles in clean waters down to about 200 m from the British Isles to the Mediterranean.^[1] The shell can reach up to about 110 mm Ø, its outer side is smooth and ranges from light greenish creamy colour to medium brown ^[2], probably varies to match the background; the interior is white to soft pink. The concentric and radial growth lines are easily seen. Callista chione is edible, different dishes are prepared throughout the Mediterranean in Spain, Italy, France, the Balkan and the Magreb countries.

It has been found that, as is the case with many bivalve molluscs, which are filter-feeders, (they feed by filtering food particles from the water), that Callista chione, common in fish markets in the Mediterranean, concentrates toxins from dinoflagellates blooms associated with pollution events such as red tides^[3], sewage water, old sediment dredging, ship ballast water dumping, etc. These toxins cannot be eliminated by the traditional cleansing of shellfish in clean water or by cooking, and can be responsible for complex human health problems: respiratory ailments, skin rashes, even paralysis, etc., such as it is known now to have occurred in New Orleans, associated with the contact or ingestion of severely contaminated water, left by Katrina. The commonest of these dangers is known as PSP or paralytic shellfish poisoning