- Range:
Blue = current range
Hollow circles = former range
- Status in Kansas:
Common in some southeast Kansas rivers
- North American Status:
(From NatureServe)
This is a widespread
species that is starting to become threatened with local extirpations on the edges of its
range. It is stable and secure throughout the majority of its range. This species occurs
in the Upper Mississippi and Ohio river drainages, south to the Tennessee and Arkansas
rivers. Ranges from Wisconsin and Minnesota, west through Kansas to Oklahoma, south to
Alabama, east through West Virginia and Ohio. It is also found in the Cumberland River
(Tennessee and Kentucky) and Tombigbee River (Alabama and Mississippi). It is considered
endangered in Ohio, threatened in Wisconsin, and is extirpated from Pennsylvania. The
species formerly occurred in Mississippi in the Pearl River and Pascagoula River drainages
(and the Yazoo River drainage as archaeological specimens only) but is now extirpated.
- Comments:
The monkeyface has a very prominent posterior ridge and is sometimes strikingly
marked with dark triangles. By viewing the shell edge-on and using your imagination you
can see the face of a monkey. It is a river species and is most common in riffles and
swift runs. Because of its heavy shell, white nacre and decent numbers, it was also
targeted in the button and cultured pearl industry. Its population density has apparently
been increasing at some sampling sites in southeast Kansas. This is a positive sign for
all native mussels. However, it is absent above some of the large mainstem reservoirs in
southeastern Kansas.
- Fish Hosts:
green sunfish and bluegill
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