Page 114 - The Freshwater Mussels of Oklahoma

Partial Synonymy:
Obliquaria reflexa Rafinesque, 1820, Simpson 1914; Isely 1925; Murray and
Leonard 1962; Valentine and Stansbery 1971; Johnson 1980; Branson
1984; Oesch 1984; Turgeon and others 1988; Vidrine 1995; Watters 1995;
Howells and others 1996
Description:
“Shell irregularly oval, inflated, solid, inequilateral, with rather high, full beaks,
which are turned forward over a small lunule, their sculpture consisting of three or four
coarse, oblique ridges; posterior ridge well developed; sculpture with a central radial row
of four or five strong, longitudinally compressed knobs, and besides these there are
occasional slight corrugations or wrinkles; epidermis generally smooth and subshining,
yellowish-green, usually covered with delicate, wavy, more or less broken rays, often
uncolored. Sometimes these rays consist of small dots and again of arrow-head
markings; posterior end of shell obliquely truncate above; left valve with two ragged,
radial, stumpy pseudocardinals and two slightly curved laterals; right valve with one
triangular pseudocardinal, often with a vestigial tooth on each side of it, and one double
lateral; muscle scars small, the anterior ones rough; beak cavities shallow; nacre white,
straw-colored, salmon or reddish, much thicker in front. Male and female shells scarcely
differing “(Simpson 1914, p 330).

Table 20. Summary of O. reflexa shell characters.

Maximum
H/L Range Mean H/L Length W/L Range Mean H/L
Location N (%) (%) (mm) (%) (%)
Arkansas River System
Verdigris River 25 75.0-89.2 82.5 83 49.4-67.7 58.5
Caney River 7 79.7-88.2 83.1 65 54.2-63.0 59.0
Hulah Lake 5 78.3-86.8 83.1 60 53.3-64.2 58.1
Neosho River 19 73.8-86.8 80.9 83 50.0-62.7 58.0
Illinois River 2 81.0-82.4 81.7 68 57.4-61.9 59.7
Poteau River 6 81.4-90.6 86.0 71 58.3-65.6 61.4
Red River System
Lake Texoma 9 74.2-85.1 77.9 50 58.1-64.0 61.8
Blue River 8 77.9-91.8 83.1 68 55.9-64.2 59.8
Muddy Boggy River 4 83.3-88.2 85.2 62 60.0-67.7 64.9
Kiamichi River 29 75.9-92.1 82.3 72 51.9-69.8 58.5
Little River 4 80.0-85.7 82.2 65 57.1-71.4 65.3
Glover River 1 82.6 - 46 65.2 -
Mountain Fork River 1 77.6 - 58 60.3 -

General Distribution:
Mississippi River system, Great Lakes drainage and adjacent Gulf of Mexico
tributaries from Texas to Florida.
Oklahoma Distribution:
Found throughout most of the eastern one-third of Oklahoma. Yellow dot
represents a subfossil specimen outside the present distribution of the species.

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