When live, the low-profiled V. stroemia is often concealed below sponge and other sessile growth which find a good attachment to the strongly sculptured plates. When open, the tilted operculum (1) often conceals the orange-red interior except for a slit along the open edge (2). Often the orange-red slit is all that is visible apart from any small exposed part of the plates (3). Menai Strait, February 2011.