Phaxas

Phaxas
Shell of Phaxas tenellus (holotype at MNHN, Paris)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Bivalvia
Order:	Adapedonta
Superfamily:	Solenoidea
Family:	Pharidae
Genus:	Phaxas Leach in Gray, 1852
Species
See text
Synonyms
Cultellus (Cultrensis) Coen, 1933 Cultrensis Coen, 1933 Phaxas (Phaxas) Leach in Gray, 1852 Phaxus [sic] (misspelling)

Phaxas is a genus of small razor shells in the family Pharidae. Members of the genus have a pair of elongate valves and live in soft sediments on the sea bed. They have a muscular foot with which they can dig rapidly and a short siphon which they extend to the surface of the substrate. They are suspension feeders.^[1]

The following species are recognised:^[2]

• Phaxas pellucidus (Pennant, 1777)
• Phaxas tenellus Cosel, 1993

Species brought into synonymy:

• Phaxas adriaticus (Coen, 1933): synonym of Phaxas pellucidus (Pennant, 1777)
• Phaxas cultellus (Linnaeus, 1758): synonym of Ensiculus cultellus (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Phaxas decipiens (E. A. Smith, 1904) accepted as Afrophaxas decipiens (E. A. Smith, 1904)

• Coen G. (1933). Molluschi nuovi di Rovigno. Note dell'Istituto Italo-Germanico di Biologia marina di Rovigno d'Istria, 6: 1-8, 1 pl.
• Vaught, K.C.; Tucker Abbott, R.; Boss, K.J. (1989). A classification of the living Mollusca. American Malacologists: Melbourne. ISBN 0-915826-22-4. XII, 195 pp.

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• Gray, J. E. (1852). Molluscorum Britanniae Synopsis: a synopsis of the Mollusca of Great Britain. John van Vorst, London, xvi, 376 pp