Blue Mussel
Mytilus edulis
Summary 5
The blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), also known as the common mussel, is a medium-sized edible marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae, the mussels. Blue mussels are subject to commercial use and intensive aquaculture.
Description 6
The common mussel has a roughly triangular shell, which is bluish, purplish or brown in colour and covered with a black outer layer (3). The inside of the shell is pearly, with a blue outer edge (2).
Food habits 7
The diet of Mytilus edulis consists of phytoplankton, dinoflagellates, small diatoms, zoospores, flagellates, other protozoans, various unicellular algae, and detritus filtered from the surrounding water. Blue mussels are suspension filter feeders and are considered scavengers, collecting anything in the water column that is small enough to ingest.
Animal Foods: eggs; zooplankton
Plant Foods: algae; phytoplankton
Other Foods: detritus ; microbes
Foraging Behavior: filter-feeding
Primary Diet: planktivore ; detritivore
Habitat 8
The common mussel can be found from the middle shore to the shallow sublittoral zone, and attaches to substrates such as piers, rocks and stones with protein threads known as 'byssus' (2). It may also occur on soft sediments in estuaries, and large beds often form; mussels are farmed commercially in many areas (2).
Sources and Credits
- (c) Emőke Dénes, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broadstairs_-_Mytilus_edulis_2.jpg
- (c) meriseal, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/52247304@N03/4837948430
- (c) Biopix, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.biopix.com/photos/uwe-mytilus-edulis-00002.jpg
- (c) Andreas Trepte, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_mussel_Mytilus_edulis.jpg
- Adapted by Marisa Rafter from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mytilus_edulis
- (c) Wildscreen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/2609966
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/18660723
- (c) Wildscreen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/2609968
