Page 102 - The Freshwater Mussels of Oklahoma

Partial Synonymy:
Lampsilis recta (Lamarck, 1819), Simpson 1914; Isely 1925
Ligumia recta latissima (Rafinesque, 1820), Isely 1925; Murray and Leonard
1962
Ligumia recta (Lamarck, 1819), Valentine and Stansbery 1971; Johnson 1980;
Branson 1984; Oesch 1984; Turgeon and others 1988; Vidrine 1993;
Watters 1995
Description:
“Shell large, elongated, dorsal and ventral lines nearly parallel, solid, inflated,
rounded in front, pointed behind; with full but rather low beaks, whose sculpture consists
of faint, delicate ridges, scarcely doubly looped; posterior ridge rather low, rounded;
ligament long; surface faintly and irregularly, concentrically sculptured, varying from
black to olive-green, generally lighter colored in the umbonal region, the young and
sometimes older shells often faintly rayed, left valve with two nearly equal, ragged, erect
pseudocardinals and two long, slightly curved laterals; right valve with one
posudocardinal, a feeble, compressed one above it, and one lateral with a vestige of a
second below it; muscle scars well impressed, smooth; beak cavities shallow, with two or
three deep dorsal scars; nacre purple or bluish-white often whitish, with a purple flush at
the beak cavities. The male shell is drawn out behind and ends in a blunt point about
midway up from the base; the female shell has a long, rounded marsupial swelling and
ends in a more blunt point two-thirds of the way up from the base” (Simpson 1914, p 95).
Hosts of Glochidia:
Banded Killifish, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Largemouth Bass, Orangespotted
Sunfish, Sauger, White Crappie (Watters, 1994).
Comments:
Probably extirpated from Oklahoma.

Table 17. Summary of L. recta shell characters.

H/L Length H/W
Location Sex N (%) (mm) (%) Remarks
Arkansas River Drainage
Caney River ♂ 1 39.4 175 - weathered/subfossil
♀ 1 41.6 125 - weathered/subfossil
Verdigris River ♂ 1 44.8 143 - fossil/subfossil
Neosho River ♂ 1 43.6 156 9.5 weathered/subfossil

General Distribution:
Mississmppi and some adjacent Gulf drainages through Great Lakes and St.
Lawrence systems.
Oklahoma Distribution:
Originally found in several rivers in northeastern Oklahoma but no fresh
specimens have been found in recent years.

101