Page 129 - The Freshwater Mussels of Oklahoma

Partial Synonymy:
Lampsilis laevissima (Lea, 1829), Simpson 1914; Isely 1925
Proptera laevissima (Lea, 1829), Isely 1925
Leptodea laevissima (Lea, 1829), Murray and Leonard 1962; Johnson 1980;
Branson 1984
Potamilus laevissimus (Lea, 1829), Valentine and Stansbery 1971
Potamilus ohiensis (Rafinesque, 1820), Oesch 1984; Turgeon and others 1988;
Vidrine 1993; Watters 1995; Howells and others 1996
Description:
“Shell without the wings, nearly evenly elliptical, a little wider behind with a
decided posterior and anterior basal gap, thin, subcompressed, strongly alate, having a
very high, triangular posterior wing that is often flexed at the top, and a smaller anterior
wing; beaks subcompressed, not high, with a few nodulous, broken, slightly-looped
ridges; surface with numerous irregular growth lines and sculptured in fine specimens
with delicate radiating lirae, smoky-olive, lighter at the beaks, the rest bands dark,
brilliantly polished; left valve with one or two feeble, compressed pseudocardinals and
two remote, delicate laterals; right valve with one pseudocardinal, sometimes a faint one
above it, and a high, truncated lateral; beak cavities shallow, with an irregular row of
shallow scars; adductor scars large and shallow; nacre purplish. The male and female
shells are so near alike that it is often difficult to separate them. The male shell is
generally slightly rhomboid behind and the female is a very little fuller along the base
than the male” (Simpson 1914, p 183).
Hosts for Glochidia:
Freshwater Drum, White Crappie (Watters, 1994).

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