“Modiolus areolatus (Gould, 1850)
Plate 72:3
Throughout New Zealand, including Chatham, Bounty, Auckland and Campbell Islands, from low water to about 70 fathoms. The largest examples occur in the deep waters of the south. Fossil from the Opoitian lower Pliocene onward.
Shell moderately large to large, transversely ovate, capacious, narrowly rounded at the anterior end, and broadly winged posteriorly. Creamy-white, stained reddish-purple over the dorso-posterior area, and covered by a thick reddish-chestnut periostracum, that develops stiff hair-like tufts, over the posterior half of the shell.
Anterior-post. 44-101 mm., dorso-vent. 29-58 mm., thickness 20-44 mm.”
(Powell, 1979)
