ABSTRACT
Mytilus edulis chilensis Hupe, the common, edible, or blue mussel, is commonly called chorito, dayes, or quilmahue in Chile, and mejillon chileno or mejillon del sur in Argentina. Choromytilus chorus (Molina), commonly called choro or choro zapato in Chile, is similarly of a typical mytilid shape. Aulacomya ater (Molina), the black-ribbed Mussel, commonly called cholga in Chile and mejillon rayado in Argentina, has a typical bivalve-mytilid shape. A. ater and M. edulis chilensis were the only two mussel species reported by Dell from the 1958 to 1959 Royal Society of London’s expedition to Southern Chile. In A. ater there is marked internal sexual dimorphism. The males display a whitish-yellow mantle, while that of the females is light brown with darker spots. A. ater grows to its largest size in the Magellanic region where a maximum size of 15.6 cm has been reported.
