Habitat: it lives in the littoral zone on sandy and muddy bottoms, from the tide line up to a few tens of metres depth. Distribution: common enough all over the Mediterranean. It is present in the Black Sea too.
Notes: shell solid, ovoid in form, inequivalve, inequilateral. Anterior part, with margin roundish, almost as long as the double of the pos-terior one which has the margin truncated obliquely and a little bit beaked at the base. Surface bright near umbo, the rest covered by fine and close growth striae. Periostracum weak, light brown in colour.
Usually cither dirty white or rosy in colour, with some darker radial streaks. Specimens completely white in colour can be rarely found. White internally, with external rays reddish in colour that can be seen in transparence. Internal margin smooth. In the juvenile specimens outline is not very much different from the adults one, however as the individual is growing up, the beak is more and more emphasized.
Tellina clistorta Poli, 1791 is the similar one more alike to this species, but, seen dorsally, it differs since it is rather bent in the posterior limb. On the contrary Tellina pulchella Lamarck, 1818 is remarkably more beaked and usually it is either red or deeper pink in colour. There are many varieties of no taxonomic value, a large part of them set up by De Gregorio (1885). The adult specimens average measures are around 18-20 mm in length. (See confrontation table page 142).