Quadrula fragosa
| Winged Mapleleaf Quadrula fragosa |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Unionoida |
| Family: | Unionidae |
| Genus: | Quadrula |
| Species: | Q. fragosa |
| Binomial name | |
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Quadrula fragosa Conrad, 1835 |
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The Winged Mapleleaf, also known as False Mapleleaf, or Hickory Nut Shell, and with the scientific name Quadrula fragosa, is a species of freshwater mussel. It is an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. It is endemic to the United States.
Quadrula fragosa is only located in a few parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Missouri — in the Midwestern United States. It is a federal critically endangered river mussel species.
The anterior end of the Quadrula fragosa shell is slightly rounded and the posterior end of the shell is more of a square shape.
The shell can range in color from a yellowish-green to light or dark brown. The inside of the shell is white, and there is sometimes iridescent coloring at one end of the shell. The diameter of a mature mussel of this species is usually about 4 inches (10.2 cm).
The shells of these mussels are very thick, and unlike many other mussels, there are bumps on the shell surface running down from the hinge of the shell to the outside edges. It is the patterns of these bumps that help to distinguish the winged mapleleaf from many other mussels that look very similar in appearance.
The winged mapleleaf is found in medium to large streams and rivers. it can sometimes be found in the mud, but it is more commonly either found in gravel or sandy bottoms. The mussel does need to be in moving water in order to survive, the depth of this running water also needs to be somewhere between 0.4 and 2.0 meters. The water must be free of pollutants and clean.
At one time the winged mapleleaf could be found in thirteen states. It lived in nearly all the rivers and streams that flow into the Mississippi River. It was once also found in some rivers and streams that flow into the Missouri River.
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Wikipedia