- Range:
Blue = current range
Hollow circles = former range
- Status in Kansas:
Species in need of conservation
- North American Status:
(From NatureServe)
This species is wide
ranging but has experienced some declines in the Great Lakes, northern Mississippi
drainage, and range edges in the west and northeast; it is most stable in the Gulf Coastal
region and southern Mississippi drainage. It occurs in the Mississippian region; Great
Lakes: Michigan and Erie; Mobile basin; Gulf Coastal region west to the Rio Grande system
of Texas and Mexico (Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas), and Calcacieu River system of Louisiana.
Recently this species has been confirmed to be likely extirpated from the main channel of
the Detroit River between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, Michigan/Ontario; due to zebra
mussel invasion.
- Comments:
The fawnsfoot is one of the smallest mussels in Kansas rivers. The markings on the
shell are striking because they look like zigzags, scribbles or wide, dark rays on a
background of golden to light brown. Fawnsfoot mussels can sometimes be found washed up
along the shoreline of reservoirs. The juvenile fawnsfoot produces a byssal thread it
attaches to a small rock or even a nearby larger mussel shell. These act as anchors to
keep this small mussel from being washed downstream. The only known host fish in Kansas is
the freshwater drum, a fish well known for its appetite for small mussels. The fawnsfoot
is found in the rivers of eastern Kansas.
- Fish Hosts:
freshwater drum
|
