CURRENTLY MONITORING:  female wavyrayed lampmussel,  Lampsilis fasciola for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Todd Morris)
COSEWIC listing: Endangered

Lampmussel video archive click here 

Background:  In the several rivers in Canada including the Grand River, Ontario, this endangered unionid bivalve uses lures to attract smallmouth bass as part of its reproductive cycle.  When a fish approaches the lure (one lure type imitates a leach, the other lure type imitates a darter - see pictures above), the mussel expels numerous glochidia into the fishs' mouth.  The glochidia are larval mussels that attach to the gill filaments  of the fish for up to two months.  During this period, the fish carry the mussels upstream, and likely use fishways to transport mussels upstream over barriers such as the Mannheim weir, which is located approximately 5 km upstream from BRAVO node 1.  The female mussels that are currently being monitored for DFO scientists (Todd Morris) are between 3 and 4 cm long  with several different lure types.

NOTE:  September 7 2007 - three new wavyrayed lampmussels in field of view
 

            
Photographs of Lampsilis fasciola from the Thames River and Grand River, Ontario, courtesy of Todd Morris - Fisheries and Oceans Canada