BUTTERFLY

Photo by Edwin Miller
used by permission

Federal Status:
None

State Status:
Threatened

• Range:
  Dark Blue = Counties with designated critical habitat
  Light Blue = Historical records
• Comments: A dazzling golden-yellow shell with dark broken lines characterizes the freshwater mussel named the butterfly. The overall shape resembles a resting butterfly. The male is flatter than the female. The shell was once valuable in the button industry. Butterfly mussels reportedly are disappearing from many areas where they formerly were found. A few still inhabit the best mussel sites of the Fall, Verdigris, Neosho, Spring and Marais des Cygnes rivers. The fish hosts for the butterfly represent three different families of native fish and include freshwater drum, green sunfish and sauger.

Other Gastropods on the Kansas T&E List