It is found attached by its byssal threads to a number of different substrates, rocks and corals (especially to Gorgonacea), at intertidal depths of less than 35 m (115 ft).

The outside color of the shell ranges from dark brown to black, while the interior is nacreous silvery, a wide non-nacreous glossy black margin[3] As well as most of the species of the class Bivalvia, these wing oysters are gonochoric.

Embryos of this species at first develop into a free-swimming planktonic marine larva, then followed by a veliger, quite similar to a small clam.

When they do, they tend to be irregular in shape and have the same range of pinkish hues that are typical of the nacre lining the shells.

Because the shell valves of this species are so thin, it was beyond the competence of nineteenth century oyster culturists to use it for pearl production.