Section of girdle from specimen 11 mm long.
L. cinerea has a distinctive girdle pattern that is unique in NW Europe, but occurs on other spp. worldwide, such as L. iberica and L. monterosatoi in north-west Spain. Occasionally it can not be detected, but even on many pale specimens it can be detected partially and faintly by those familiar with the pattern. Its elements are:
Alternating dark and light transverse lozenge-like bands of approximately equal size.
1: narrow waist of dark band interlocking with bulging waist of pale band (sometimes colours interchanged).
2: central dark spot on pale band, and white spot somewhere on dark band (in this case, near margin).
3: pale grey (or whitish or pale brown) longitudinal line often runs across, or near to, the waists of bands.
Menai Strait, Wales. February 2011.

KEY ID FEATURES and similar species at: 01 Lepidochitona cinerea