Alabama Lampmussel

Lampsilis virescens

Description

The Alabama lampmussel, Lampsilis virescens, has an elliptical shell, typically about 2.5 in (6 cm) long. The smooth, shiny surface of the shell ranges in color from yellowish brown to greenish brown and is sometimes faintly rayed. Shell beaks are full and sculptured with many delicate ridges. Males are more bluntly pointed at the hinge, while females are rounder and slightly more inflated.

Behavior

See the Upland Combshell (Epioblasma metastriata ) entry.

Habitat

The Alabama lampmussel buries in sand or gravel substrates in small to medium-sized streams. It requires clear, cool water with little sediment and moderate current.

Distribution

The Alabama lampmussel is a Cumberlandian mussel, native to the southern Appalachians and the Cumberland Plateau. It was apparently restricted to the lesser tributaries of the Tennessee River from above the confluence of the Clinch River downstream to Tuscumbia, Alabama. Within this broadly defined range, this species was found in extremely localized beds in relatively low numbers.

Populations were documented in the Emory River (Roane and Morgan Counties), and Coal Creek (Anderson County), Tennessee, and in Paint Rock River (Jackson County), Beech and Brown Creeks (Marshall County), Spring Creek (Colbert County), and Bear and Little Bear Creeks (Franklin County), Alabama.

Currently, the only populations of the Alabama lampmussel known to survive occur in the Paint Rock River and its tributaries—Hurricane Creek, Estill Fork, and Larkin Fork (Franklin and Jackson Counties, Alabama). Some evidence has been collected to suggest that the species may still survive in the Little Emory River (Roane County), Tennessee.

Threats

The natural, unimpeded flow of the Tennessee River and its tributaries has been irrevocably altered by the construction of a series of major flood control, navigation, and hydroelectric dams on the main channel. Poor agricultural practices, strip mining, logging, and road construction have contributed heavy loads of silt to the basin's rivers and streams, in many cases smothering mussel beds or potential habitat. In particular, all of the mussel beds in Coal Creek, Tennessee, have been smothered by coal wastes and runoff. Gravel dredging within the range of the Alabama lampmussel has disturbed substrates and made stretches of river uninhabitable for mussels and host fishes.

Chemical and heavy metal contaminants from industries located along the river have also degraded general water quality. Because mussels filter many gallons of water each day to feed, contaminants become concentrated in the soft tissues, weakening or killing the mussel.

Conservation and Recovery

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state biologists have cooperated to redistribute the Paint Rock River population so that a single accident, such as a toxic chemical spill, would not result in loss of the total population. Pending the results of ongoing research into the ecology of this species, populations will be reintroduced to habitable streams within its historic range.

An innovative technique, being developed by the Virginia Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, would enable reintroduction of mussels by stocking a stream with host fishes, which have been inoculated with mussel glochidia (larvae). This method provides a promising alternative to transplanting adult mussels, which are typically limited in number.

Contact

Regional Office of Endangered Species
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1875 Century Blvd., Ste 200
Atlanta, Georgia 30345
http://southeast.fws.gov/

References

Ahlstedt, S. A. 1983. "The Molluscan Fauna of the Elk River in Tennessee and Alabama." American Malacological Bulletin 1:43-50.

Isom, B. G. 1968. "The Naiad Fauna of Indian Creek, Madison County, Alabama." American Midland Naturalist 79(2):514-516.

Isom, B. G. 1969. "The Mussel Resources of the Tennessee River." Malacologia 7(2/3):397-425.

Isom, B. G., and P. Yokley, Jr. 1968. "Mussels of Bear Creek Watershed, Alabama and Mississippi, with a discussion of the Area Geology." American Midland Naturalist 79(1):189-196.