1 Atlas of the Freshwater Mussels (Unionidae) (Class Bivalvia: Order Unionoida) Recorded at the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve & State Nature Preserve, Ohio and surrounding watersheds by Robert A. Krebs Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences Cleveland State University Cleveland, Ohio, USA 44115 September 2015 (Revised from 2009) 2 Atlas of the Freshwater Mussels (Unionidae) (Class Bivalvia: Order Unionoida) Recorded at the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve & State Nature Preserve, Ohio, and surrounding watersheds Acknowledgements I thank Dr. David Klarer for providing the stimulus for this project and Kristin Arend for a thorough review of the present revision. The Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve provided housing and some equipment for local surveys while research support was provided by a Research Experiences for Undergraduates award from NSF (DBI 0243878) to B. Michael Walton, by an NOAA fellowship (NA07NOS4200018), and by an EFFRD award from Cleveland State University. Numerous students were instrumental in different aspects of the surveys: Mark Lyons, Trevor Prescott, Erin Steiner, Cal Borden, Louie Rundo, and John Hook. Specimens were collected under Ohio Scientific Collecting Permits 194 (2006), 141 (2007), and 11-101 (2008). The Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve in Ohio is part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS), established by section 315 of the Coastal Zone Management Act, as amended. Additional information on these preserves and programs is available from the Estuarine Reserves Division, Office for Coastal Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U. S. Department of Commerce, 1305 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Copies of this publication are available from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources – Division of Wildlife 2514 Cleveland Road East Huron, Ohio 44839 3 Table of Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………. 4 Mussels in OWC and its Estuary ………………………………. 5 Nearby small streams: Cranberry, Chappel and Sugar Creeks …… 8 Vermilion and Huron Rivers ………………………………... 8 Identification of species ………………………………………. 9 Cited references ……………………………………………… 12 Species descriptions by genus, species begin …………………........... 13 Index to species by common name Black Sandshell (Ligumia recta) ……………………………………………………. 26 Creek Heelsplitter (Lasmigona compressa) ……………………………………………. 23 Creeper (Strophitus undulatus) ……………………………………………………. 37 Cylindrical Papershell (Anodontoides ferussacianus) ……………………………. 16 Deertoe (Truncilla truncate) ……………………………….………………………...…. 40 Eastern Pondmussel (Ligumia nasuta) ……………………………………………. 27 Elktoe (Alasmidonta marginata) ……………………………………………………. 13 Fat Mucket (Lampsilis siliquoidea) ……………………………………………………. 21 Fawnsfoot (Truncilla donaciformis) ……………………………………………………. 39 Fluted Shell (Lasmigona costata) ……………………………………………………. 24 Fragile Papershell (Leptodea fragilis) ……………………………………………. 25 Giant Floater (Pyganodon grandis) ……………………………………………………. 33 Kidneyshell (Ptychobranchus fasciolaris) ……………………………………………. 32 Lilliput (Toxolasma parvum) ……………………………………………………………. 38 Mapleleaf (Quadrula quadrula) ……………………………………………………. 36 Paper Pondshell (Utterbackia imbecillis) ……………………………………………. 42 Pimpleback (Quadrula pustulosa) ……………………………………………………. 35 Pink Heelsplitter (Potamilus alatus) ……………………………………………………. 31 Plain Pocketbook (Lampsilis cardium) ……………………………………………. 19 Pondhorn (Uniomerus tetralasmus) ……………………………………………………. 41 Rainbow (Villosa iris) ……………………………………………………………. 40 Round Hickorynut (Obovaria subrotunda) ……………………………………………. 29 Round Pigtoe (Pleurobema sintoxia) ……………………………………………………. 30 Slippershell (Alasmidonta viridis) ……………………………………………………. 14 Spike (Elliptio dilatata) ……………………………………………………………. 17 Three-horn Wartyback (Obliquaria reflexa) ……………………………………………. 28 Threeridge (Amblema plicata) ……………………………………………………. 25 Wabash Pigtoe (Fusconaia flava) ……………………………………………………. 18 Wavy-rayed Lampmussel (Lampsilis fasciola) ……………………………………. 20 White Heelsplitter (Lasmigona complanata) ……………………………………………. 22 Glossary …………………………………………………….. 44 4 Introduction Ecologically, mussels live partially buried in The bivalve family, Unionidae, represent the sediments where they feed primarily by best known native freshwater mussels that filtering water. They have ciliated internal inhabit Old Woman Creek and its estuary, as gills that cause water to flow through a pair well as the surrounding watersheds. They of siphons formed by mantle tissue located are shelled animals, producing a pair of inside the shell. Water pumped into their valves, as do clams, oysters and scallops. bodies provides them with oxygen and The animal develops encased within the two suspended organic matter, some of which mineralized shell halves, or valves, that are they ingest as food. They have a large, articulated by a ligament on the dorsal powerful foot that is extensible from the surface. This ligament is stretched across the mantle cavity and allows them to burrow back as the shell closes, and therefore acts as and crawl. During their feeding, mussels a spring when relaxed to open the shell. The also churn up the sediment through the strong adductor muscles close the shell, activity of their foot affecting nutrient although these may be supported by the transport within the system. In turn, mussels substrate surrounding the animal as it serve as a food source for birds and small embeds. mammals, and they can be an important physical component of the stream benthos in All freshwater mussels are part of an old areas with soft substrates; mussel shells are lineage of bivalves (Class Bivalvia; subclass often covered, mostly by algae, but they also Palaeoheterodonta). The Unionidae are harbor a variety of other living things from placed in the order, Unionoida, which is a caddisflies, to leeches or just about anything group of freshwater species that are only that can live in algal beds. weakly related to a sister order of brackish water mussels (the Trigonioida). Only a few of those species still survive in the subtidal waters around Australia (Darragh, 1998). The freshwater mussels live on all continents except Antarctica and compose some 900 species in five families (Graf and Cummings, 2006), with North America possessing the highest diversity (Williams et al., 1993). All of the U.S. species are in the one family Unionidae, and almost 50 species once inhabited the Lake Erie watershed (Graf, Fig. 1. An atypically well exposed giant 2002). Some 30 species of these mussels floater (P. grandis) lightly embedded in have been recorded from the local the substrate of the Rocky River, OH. watersheds that include Old Woman Creek, the Huron River, which borders the Shells of adult freshwater mussel grow watershed to the west, and the Vermilion typically to about five inches long, although River, which borders the watershed to the some species barely exceed one inch and east. some can exceed 10 inches. They are oval to elliptical in shape. The outer shell surface is 5 covered by an organic layer called a “periostracum” that may be rayed or otherwise appear patterned, and colorful, at The dreissenids coat the exposed surfaces of least after exposed surfaces are cleaned of unionid mussels, which live mostly mud and algae. This surface also may be imbedded in the bottom sediment. By ornamented with ridges, furrows, wedges, competing for food in the water (both and pustules that are believed to help anchor species filter plankton), the unionids slowly the mussel in substrate. The top of the shell starve and/or suffocate in the presence of is the location where the two halves of the their small but more numerous competitors. shell are connected by a hinge, noting again While zebra mussels and probably a related that the left and right “valves” create the “bi- species, the quagga mussel, occur in Old valve” appearance. The umbo on the dorsal Woman Creek and the neighboring rivers, surface leans to the anterior or front of the they have not become sufficiently abundant shell, with the siphons extending through the to cause a problem to the unionids living dorsal-posterior. Thus telling the left and there. Dreissenids reproduce by releasing right valves apart is straightforward. free swimming veliger larvae that cannot move against currents. Newly hatched mussels do not look like small adults. Their mothers perform parental Fig. 2. Old Woman Creek and the care, harboring the growing larva in a brood surrounding watersheds. pouch at the margins of its gills. In most species, these larvae grow to a glochidia stage, which is a parasite, and are only released in the presence of a proper fish host (Haag and Warren, 2000). The glochidia attaches to the gills or scales of a fish, receiving both nutrients and transportation. As adults, mussels can move only locally like snails if the substrate is soft, extending and contracting a muscular foot. Therefore most movement of species within a river or lake is while they are juveniles, where they spend 2-4 weeks or more attached to a fish before they drop off, settle to the substrate, and develop into a mussel. This lifestyle is useful to a freshwater existence as they would otherwise never be able to move upstream in a river. Mussels in OWC and its Estuary Mussels once were phenomenally abundant Four lengthy surveys were made specifically in the soft sands of western Lake Erie, with to find unionids during the summers of 2007 populations estimated in the billions. In the and 2008. Two