Neosho Mucket

The Neosho mucket is associated with shallow riffles and runs comprising gravel substrate and moderate to swift currents. The species most often occurs in areas with swift current, but in Shoal Creek and the Illinois River, it prefers near-shore areas or areas out of the main current. Neosho mucket don't occur in reservoirs that lack riverine characteristics.

Food items for mussels include algae, bacteria, detritus and microscopic animals. Adult mussels are filter feeders and generally orient themselves on or near the substrate surface to take in food and oxygen from the water column. Juveniles typically burrow completely beneath the substrate surface and are pedal, or foot feeders that bring food particles inside the shell for ingestion that adhere to the foot while it is extended outside the shell, until the structures for filter feeding are more fully developed.

The epidermis is olive-yellow to brown, and becomes darker brown with age. While green rays cover the surface, they are often discontinuous. The nacre, or crystalline carbonate shell material of freshwater mussels, is bluish white to white.

Neosho Mucket is of medium size up to 9.5 cm in length.

The shell is compressed and relatively thin. This species is sexually dimorphic with the female being more rounded on the posterior end. The male is elliptical, rounded before biangulate behind, with dorsal and basal margin equally arched. While the female is ovate with a widely expanded fan-shaped posterior. The left valve as having two stout, divergent, striated, triangular pseudocardinal teeth. The two lateral teeth are short, stout, and slightly curved. The right valve has a single, tall, triangular to columnar, striated pseudocardinal tooth.

Male mussels release sperm into the water column, where females draw it in through their siphons during feeding and respiration. Mussel density and water flow conditions influence fertilization success. Females retain eggs in their gills until they develop into mature larvae called glochidia. The glochidia of most freshwater mussel species, including Neosho mucket, have a parasitic stage during which they must attach to the gills, fins or skin of a fish to transform into a juvenile mussel. Depending on the mussel species, females release glochidia either separately, in masses known as conglutinates, meaning gelatinous or jelly–like, or in one large mass known as a super-conglutinate. The duration of the parasitic stage varies by mussel species, water temperature and perhaps host fish species. When the transformation is complete, the juvenile mussels drop from their fish host and sink to the stream bottom where, given suitable conditions, they grow and mature into adults.

Neosho mucket glochidia are an obligate parasite on smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu), largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and spotted bass (Micropterus punctulatus). Neosho mucket spawns in late April through May, and female brooding occurs from May through August. The female Neosho mucket inflates and extends a pair of mantle flaps, which are actually an extension of the inner lobe of the mantle edge, and from a side angle, remarkably resemble a small fish. Each mantle flap, in addition to its fish-like shape, has pigmentation that resembles an eyespot, as well as a fish’s lateral line. Muscular contractions of the mantle flaps create an undulating or swimming motion that suffices to lure fish hosts.