Abstract
Accurate species identification is critical for ecological monitoring and conservation planning, particularly among imperiled groups like freshwater mussels. Species identifications in field-based studies typically rely on morphological characters to distinguish between similar species within their known geographic distributions. Freshwater mussels can appear morphologically similar yet be phylogenetically divergent. Previous research characterized the genetic and morphological diversity of two phenotypes of Yellow Sandshell Lampsilis teres and determined that these phenotypes represented two similar looking but discrete species with overlapping distributions. We used the morphometric guidelines published in Keogh & Simons (2019) for Lampsilis teres and the newly described Canary Kingshell L. sietmani to re-examine nearly 1800 L. teres specimens from ~950 lots and 18 US states in the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Mollusk Collection. We reclassified nearly 100 lots and ~190 specimens as L. sietmani, and these re-classifications included new drainage records to augment distributional data for L. sietmani. We observed significant morphological overlap between L. teres and presumed L. sietmani and encourage further examination of these and other museum specimens. These updates provide additional information regarding distributional limits for L. sietmani and preliminary comparison data on the relative abundance of L. teres versus L. sietmani at sites where they co-exist. Better understanding of species distributions leads to more informed decision-making in the conservation and management of freshwater mussels.
Original language | English (US) |
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State | Published - 2023 |
Event | 2023 Biennial Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society Symposium - Portland, United States Duration: Apr 10 2023 → Apr 14 2023 Conference number: 13 |
Conference
Conference | 2023 Biennial Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society Symposium |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Portland |
Period | 4/10/23 → 4/14/23 |