Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Lamp­silis car­iosa, also known as the yel­low lamp­mus­sel, is a fresh­wa­ter mus­sel na­tive to east­ern North Amer­ica, span­ning from Geor­gia in the United States to Nova Sco­tia in Canada. (Kelly and Rhymer, 2005; Sabine, et al., 2004)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Lamp­silis car­iosa is found pri­mar­ily in larger streams and rivers with a mod­er­ate-to-fast stream flow, es­pe­cially in rif­fles. The yel­low lamp­mus­sel is most com­mon in rivers with drainages ex­ceed­ing 1200 km^2. The mus­sel lives mostly buried within the streambed sub­strate, and fa­vors a level sand and gravel sub­strate or sands down­stream from large rocks and boul­ders. Though less com­mon, L. car­iosa has also been found in lakes. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Amer­i­can Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2013; Jirka and Strayer, 1997; Sabine, et al., 2004; Strayer, 1993)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• freshwater

• Aquatic Biomes
• benthic
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The yel­low lamp­mus­sel is a nearly egg-shaped mus­sel with a rounded edge, though adult male mus­sels ap­pear more elon­gated than fe­males. In­di­vid­u­als av­er­age 75 mm in length, but the largest in­di­vid­u­als may grow to 130 mm and have a shell up to 4.0 mm thick. Lamp­silis car­iosa, like other bi­valves, has two valves, or shells, that con­nect at the umbo. The umbo is the old­est part of the mus­sel, and it is mod­er­ately swollen in thick­ness and some­what dou­ble-looped in pat­tern. The out­er­most layer of the shell, or pe­rios­tracum, is clear and glossy yel­low in color. As in­di­vid­u­als age, the shiny yel­low­ish color dark­ens. Fine green rays are un­com­mon in L. car­iosa, but when pre­sent are clearly de­fined and found only on the pos­te­rior angle of the shell. The yel­low lamp­mus­sel may be con­fused with other Lamp­silis species, such as Lamp­silis ovata or Lep­todea ochracea, but the pres­ence of green rays wide­spread across the valves on these species tra­di­tion­ally acts as a means for dis­tin­guish­ing them from L. car­iosa.

On the in­side of the shell, the inner sur­face, or nacre, of the yel­low lamp­mus­sel is glossy white or bluish-white in color. The mus­sel has hinge teeth that as­sist in keep­ing the two valves in align­ment at the an­te­rior-dor­sal re­gion of the shell. The left valve has two pseudo­car­di­nal teeth, and the right valve has one. These teeth, in ad­di­tion to the mus­sel's lat­eral teeth, are dis­tinct and promi­nent, but they vary in shape.

Man­tle tis­sue, or the soft tis­sue lin­ing the in­side of the mus­sel, is smooth, gray, and has darker mark­ings of streaks or dots. Fe­males of L. car­iosa have a well-de­vel­oped man­tle, which is dis­played ex­ter­nally from the mus­sel to act as a lure for fish. Fe­males' man­tle tis­sue is pig­mented and flap-like and has ad­di­tional col­or­ing and the pres­ence of dark eye­spot-like mark­ings. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Amer­i­can Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2013; "Mus­sel glos­sary", 2006; Jirka and Strayer, 1997; The Uni­ver­sity of Geor­gia Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2008; "Fresh­wa­ter mus­sels of the upper Mis­sis­sippi River sys­tem", 2006)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes shaped differently

• Range length

  130 (high) mm

  5.12 (high) in

• Average length

  100 mm

  3.94 in

De­vel­op­ment

Lamp­silis car­iosa has an in­tri­cate life cycle that be­gins with a par­a­sitic lar­val stage, char­ac­ter­is­tic of unionid bi­valves, known as a glochid­ium (pl. glochidia). Com­posed of chiti­nous valves, the glochid­ium re­sem­bles a minia­ture ver­sion of the adult mus­sel and is typ­i­cally 0.3 mm or smaller. Glochidia are re­leased into the water col­umn by a fe­male in re­sponse to the fe­male's man­tle lure being struck by a po­ten­tial host fish, ei­ther a white perch (Mo­rone amer­i­cana) or a yel­low perch (Perca flavescens). Upon re­lease, the glochidia at­tach to the host fish by clamp­ing their two valves tightly to­gether around its tis­sue and di­gest­ing the tis­sue be­tween the valves. Once at­tached, the fish host's tis­sues con­tinue to grow around the glochid­ium in re­sponse to its tis­sue dam­age which causes en­cyst­ment of the par­a­sitic lar­vae. While en­cysted, the glochidia un­dergo meta­mor­pho­sis to the ju­ve­nile stage. At the end of its par­a­sitic pe­riod, the length of which is not spec­i­fied in the lit­er­a­ture, the newly de­vel­oped ju­ve­nile ex­cysts from the host fish and falls to the sub­strate where it then bur­rows into the sed­i­ment and grows into an adult mus­sel. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Arey, 1932; Kelly and Rhymer, 2005; Williams, et al., 2008)

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis

Re­pro­duc­tion

The yel­low lamp­mus­sel is dioe­cious and re­pro­duces through sex­ual re­pro­duc­tion, in­clud­ing open fer­til­iza­tion. Dur­ing the sum­mer months, male Lamp­silis car­iosa re­lease their sperm into the water col­umn to be taken in by fe­males through their siphon so as to fer­til­ize their eggs. Water tem­per­a­ture is likely an im­por­tant cue for re­pro­duc­tion to occur, and ga­me­to­ge­n­e­sis in fresh­wa­ter mus­sels has been ob­served to cease in re­sponse to cold water tem­per­a­tures. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; The Uni­ver­sity of Geor­gia Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2008; "Fresh­wa­ter mus­sels of the upper Mis­sis­sippi River sys­tem", 2006)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

After fer­til­iza­tion, the eggs de­velop within the fe­male mus­sel's mar­supium, or brood pouch, into par­a­sitic glochidia. Due their par­a­sitic na­ture, L. car­iosa glochidia re­quire a host fish of ei­ther the white or yel­low perch, upon which the glochidia at­tach and con­tinue to ma­ture into adults once re­leased from the gravid fe­male. In order to at­tract a po­ten­tial host fish, fe­males ex­tend their mod­i­fied man­tle flap. This man­tle tis­sue has dis­tinc­tive mark­ings and pig­men­ta­tion such as an ‘eye­spot' which cause it to re­sem­ble a small fish or min­now and acts as a fish lure to in­crease the prob­a­bil­ity of con­tact be­tween man­tle flap and fish. Once this lure is struck by a preda­tory fish, the fully ma­tured glochidia are re­leased by the fe­male and at­tach to the fish's gill or fin tis­sue.

The age at sex­ual ma­tu­rity for L. car­iosa is un­known, as is the pre­cise tim­ing of fer­til­iza­tion, lar­val mat­u­ra­tion and glochidia re­lease; how­ever, most lit­er­a­ture cites fresh­wa­ter mus­sels as be­gin­ning sex­ual re­pro­duc­tion be­tween three and five years of age. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; The Uni­ver­sity of Geor­gia Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2008; Williams, et al., 2008)

• Key Reproductive Features
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• broadcast (group) spawning
• ovoviviparous

• Breeding season

  Breeding takes place in the summer.

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  3 to 5 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  3 to 5 years

Fer­til­ized eggs re­main in­side the fe­male yel­low lamp­mus­sel from sum­mer until spring as they de­velop into par­a­sitic glochidia be­fore being re­leased into the water col­umn. After re­lease, there is no fur­ther parental care. (The Uni­ver­sity of Geor­gia Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2008)

• Parental Investment
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

In the Syd­ney River in Nova Sco­tia, Canada, the av­er­age lifes­pan is recorded as 7.8 years of age (± 2.7 years). In­for­ma­tion for the lifes­pan of Lamp­silis car­iosa in the rest of its range is not avail­able, but it is likely sim­i­lar. The longest known lifes­pan for the yel­low lamp­mus­sel is 17 years. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Amer­i­can Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2013)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  17 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  7.8 years

Be­hav­ior

Fresh­wa­ter mus­sels have a mus­cu­lar foot that al­lows them to bur­row and an­chor into the sub­strate at the bot­tom of their habi­tat. This foot al­lows for some mo­bil­ity within the sed­i­ment, which en­ables in­di­vid­u­als of L. car­iosa to repo­si­tion them­selves for feed­ing or to ac­com­mo­date sea­sonal water level fluc­tu­a­tions. For most of their lives, only the pos­te­rior end of the mus­sel is ex­posed, and the in­di­vid­ual re­mains seden­tary within the sub­strate. The pri­mary means of dis­per­sal for Lamp­silis car­iosa is dur­ing the par­a­sitic glochidial stage when lar­vae are sus­pended in the water col­umn and at­tach them­selves to host fish. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Williams, et al., 2008)

• Key Behaviors
• parasite
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

The mus­sel's long, mus­cu­lar foot, which an­chors it to the stream bot­tom, will be with­drawn back into the in­di­vid­ual and will clamp shut in re­sponse to cues such as phys­i­cal con­tact or being re­moved from the sed­i­ment. Fresh­wa­ter mus­sels are also re­spon­sive to shad­ows. Re­lease of glochidia into the water col­umn by Lamp­silis car­iosa fe­males is trig­gered by phys­i­cal con­tact be­tween host fish and man­tle fish lure. The man­tle fish lure re­sem­bles a small fish typ­i­cally tar­geted by the host fish so as to in­crease the like­li­hood of con­tact. No ad­di­tional in­for­ma­tion is cited in the lit­er­a­ture for com­mu­ni­ca­tion or per­cep­tion by L. car­iosa or mech­a­nisms through which these in­ter­ac­tions occur. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Bru­en­der­man, et al., 2002)

• Other Communication Modes
• mimicry

• Perception Channels
• polarized light
• tactile

Food Habits

Lamp­silis car­iosa is a fil­ter feeder that helps to re­move tox­ins, de­tri­tus, and mi­croor­gan­isms from both the water col­umn and sed­i­ment as it feeds. Water is taken in by the mus­sel's in­cur­rent siphon and washes over its gills, at which point oxy­gen, food, and other par­ti­cles are re­moved. Algae and small bits of de­cay­ing waste are in­gested as food, as is other fine or­ganic par­tic­u­late mat­ter. Not many specifics are known about fresh­wa­ter mus­sel food and feed­ing habits. Waste from feed­ing is re­leased through the ex­cur­rent siphon as pseu­do­fe­ces, which pro­vides a food source for other fresh­wa­ter or­gan­isms. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Bru­en­der­man, et al., 2002; Williams, et al., 2008)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • algivore
• detritivore

• Plant Foods
• algae
• phytoplankton

• Other Foods
• fungus
• detritus

• Foraging Behavior
• filter-feeding

Pre­da­tion

The lar­val and adult stages of Lamp­silis car­iosa are sub­jected to dif­fer­ent preda­tors. Ju­ve­nile and lar­val yel­low lamp­mus­sels are po­ten­tial prey for ducks, herons, fish, and in­ver­te­brates, whereas older, larger mus­sels are prey to muskrats, ot­ters, and rac­coons. Muskrats are a preda­tor of L. car­iosa found through­out its ge­o­graphic range and can po­ten­tially threaten a pop­u­la­tion's vi­a­bil­ity. How­ever, muskrats tend to pre­fer thin­ner-shelled mus­sel species over L. car­iosa. Be­cause fresh­wa­ter mus­sels with­draw their mus­cu­lar foot in­side their shell when re­moved from the sub­strate in which they are bur­rowed and quickly clamp shut, the thick shell of L. car­iosa acts as a de­fen­sive mech­a­nism and/or de­ter­rent to preda­tors. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Bru­en­der­man, et al., 2002; Kurth, 2007; Sabine, et al., 2004)

• Known Predators

  • ducks, Anatidae
  • herons, Ardeidae
  • fish
  • muskrats, Ondatra zibethicus
  • otters, Lutrinae
  • raccoons, Procyon lotor

Ecosys­tem Roles

Be­cause Lamp­silis car­iosa, like other fresh­wa­ter mus­sels, is a sus­pen­sion feeder, it fil­ters the water sup­ply and im­proves water qual­ity. Ad­di­tion­ally, the pseu­do­fe­ces it re­leases pro­vides food for other fresh­wa­ter or­gan­isms. The yel­low lamp­mus­sel serves a prey to a va­ri­ety of other an­i­mals, in­clud­ing fish, water fowl, and medium sized mam­mals such as ot­ters and muskrats. The white perch (Mo­rone amer­i­cana) and yel­low perch (Perca flavescens) are crit­i­cal dur­ing the life cycle of Lamp­silis car­iosa be­cause they serve as hosts for the par­a­sitic glochidia, which must at­tach to the host fish for meta­mor­pho­sis into a ju­ve­nile to occur. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Kelly and Rhymer, 2005)

• Ecosystem Impact
• parasite

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

His­tor­i­cally, fresh­wa­ter mus­sels were har­vested and con­sumed by Na­tive Amer­i­cans. From the mid-to-late-1800s, mus­sels were har­vested for their pearls or for their shells, which could be used to pro­duce but­tons. Fresh­wa­ter mus­sels such as Lamp­silis car­iosa act as eco­log­i­cal in­di­ca­tor species due to their sen­si­tiv­ity to en­vi­ron­men­tal changes. (Mock, et al., 2004; Williams, et al., 2008)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material
• research and education

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no know ad­verse ef­fects of Lamp­silis car­iosa on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The yel­low lamp­mus­sel is listed as an en­dan­gered species and is threat­ened by habi­tat de­struc­tion, de­clin­ing water qual­ity, damming and chan­nel­iza­tion of wa­ter­ways, runoff from farms, pre­da­tion, and non-na­tive or in­va­sive species in­tro­duc­tion. Due to their lim­ited mo­bil­ity, fresh­wa­ter mus­sels are par­tic­u­larly vul­ner­a­ble.

In­va­sive species such as the zebra mus­sel (Dreis­sena poly­mor­pha) and the Asian clam (Cor­bic­ula flu­minea) are po­ten­tially se­vere threats for the na­tive yel­low lamp­mus­sel. These in­va­sive species form colonies in large num­bers and may cause the death of L. car­iosa pop­u­la­tions.

Be­cause Lamp­silis car­iosa re­quires a spe­cific host fish for its life cycle, many con­ser­va­tion ef­forts focus on pro­tect­ing the host fish in ad­di­tion to the mus­sel it­self. Any ob­sta­cle that redi­rects nat­ural water flow may in­hibit host fish move­ment and there­fore glochidia dis­per­sal for L. car­iosa. Some ef­forts to pre­serve the species as a re­sult of dam con­struc­tion have in­cluded translo­cat­ing in­di­vid­u­als else­where within the wa­ter­way; how­ever, in­di­vid­u­als do not al­ways sur­vive the translo­ca­tion process.

Pro­hi­bi­tion of the killing of fish and mus­sels aside from the act of fish­ing, pre­vent­ing harm­ful ac­tiv­i­ties to the habi­tat it­self (in­clud­ing al­ter­ation, dis­rup­tion and de­struc­tion), and reg­u­lat­ing the usage/de­po­si­tion of chem­i­cals or sub­stances that may im­pact water qual­ity are all steps that have been taken to help pre­serve the species. ("Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed", 2009; Bogan, 1996; Kurth, 2007; Williams, et al., 1993)

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Yese­nia M Werner (au­thor), The Col­lege of New Jer­sey, Keith Pecor (ed­i­tor), The Col­lege of New Jer­sey, An­gela Miner (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

United States Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice. 2006. "Fresh­wa­ter mus­sels of the upper Mis­sis­sippi River sys­tem" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 01, 2013 at http://​www.​fws.​gov/​midwest/​mussel/​glossary.​html.

Fish­eries and Oceans Canada. Man­age­ment Plan for the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in Canada - Pro­posed. En3-5/6-2009E. Ot­tawa: Fish­eries and Oceans Canada. 2009. Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 04, 2013 at http://​publications.​gc.​ca/​site/​eng/​359075/​publication.​html.

Illi­nois State Mu­seum. 2006. "Mus­sel glos­sary" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 01, 2013 at http://​www.​museum.​state.​il.​us/​ismdepts/​zoology/​mussels/​mussel_​glossary.​html.

Amer­i­can Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2013. "Lamp­silis car­iosa species sum­mary" (On-line). Genus Lamp­silis. Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 08, 2013 at http://​www.​amnh.​org/​our-research/​center-for-biodiversity-conservation/​research/​species-based-research/​invertebrate-conservation/​freshwater-mussels/​mussel-species/​genus-lampsilis.

Arey, L. 1932. The for­ma­tion and struc­ture of the glochidial cyst. Bi­o­log­i­cal Bul­letin, 62.2: 212-221.

Bogan, A. 1996. "Lamp­silis car­iosa" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 01, 2013 at www.​iucnredlist.​org.

Bru­en­der­man, S., J. Stern­burg, C. Barn­hart. 2002. "Mis­souri’s Fresh­wa­ter Mus­sels" (On-line pdf). Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 04, 2013 at http://​molluskconservation.​org/​Library/​Maps/​pdfs/​Missouri-freshwater.​pdf.

Jirka, K., D. Strayer. 1997. "The Pearly Mus­sels of New York State" (On-line pdf). Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 04, 2013 at http://​www.​nysm.​nysed.​gov/​pubsforsale/​detail.​cfm?​pubID=5222.

Kelly, M., J. Rhymer. 2005. Pop­u­la­tion ge­netic struc­ture of a rare unionid (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in a re­cently glaciated land­scape. Con­ser­va­tion Ge­net­ics, 6: 789-802.

Kurth, J. 2007. Meth­ods for the Translo­ca­tion of the Yel­low Lamp­mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) and the Tide­wa­ter Mucket (Lep­todea ochracea) in the Fort Hal­i­fax Dam Im­pound­ment of the Se­bas­ti­cok River, Maine. Orono: Uni­ver­sity of Maine. Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 04, 2013 at http://​www.​library.​umaine.​edu/​theses/​theses.​asp?​Cmd=abstract&​ID=EES2007-002.

Mock, J., J. Brim-Box, M. Miller, M. Down­ing, W. Hoeh. 2004. Ge­netic di­ver­sity and di­ver­gence among fresh­wa­ter mus­sel (An­odonta) pop­u­la­tions in the Bon­neville Basin of Utah. Mol­e­c­u­lar Ecol­ogy, 13: 1085-1098.

Sabine, D., S. Make­peace, D. McAlpine. 2004. The yel­low lamp mus­sel (Lamp­silis car­iosa) in New Brunswick: a pop­u­la­tion of sig­nif­i­cant con­ser­va­tion value. North­east­ern Nat­u­ral­ist, 11/4: 407-420.

Strayer, D. 1993. Macro­hab­i­tats of fresh­wa­ter mus­sels (Bi­valvia:Unionacea) in streams of the North­ern At­lantic Slope. Jour­nal of the North Amer­i­can Ben­tho­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 12.3: 236-246.

The Uni­ver­sity of Geor­gia Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 2008. "Yel­low lamp­mus­sel: Lamp­silis car­iosa" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 01, 2013 at http://​naturalhistory.​uga.​edu/​~GMNH/gaw­ildlife/index.​php?page=species­pages/ai_species_­page&key=lcar­iosa.

Williams, J., A. Bogan, J. Gar­ner, E. Wil­son. 2008. Fresh­wa­ter Mus­sels of Al­abama and the Mo­bile Basin in Geor­gia, Mis­sis­sippi, and Ten­nessee. Al­abama: Uni­ver­sity of Al­abama Press.

Williams, J., M. War­ren, Jr., K. Cum­mings, J. Har­ris, R. Neves. 1993. Con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of fresh­wa­ter mus­sels of the United States and Canada. Fish­eries, 18.9: 6-22.