Quagga mussel
From Freepedia
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The Quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis) is one of seven Dreissina species. It is indigenous to the Dnieper River drainage of Ukraine.
The Quagga mussel was first observed in North America in Septemeber 1989 when it was discovered in Lake Erie near Port Colburne. It was not identified as a distinct species until 1991. The species was called the Quagga Mussel after the Quagga an extinct species of African zebra, possibly because, like the Quagga, its stripes fade.
It causes many of the same problems (damaging boats, power plants, and harbours and destroying the native mussel population) as the equally invasive Zebra mussel of Russia. It is also displacing native burrowing amphipod Diporeia hoyi from the deep waters of Lake Erie.
The Quagga mussel shell is striped as with the Zebra mussel shell, but the Quagga is paler toward the hinge. However, the Quagga mussel, has a large morphological range including a distinct morph in Lake Erie that is pale or completely white.
In 1994, invasive species biologist Anthony Ricciardi, determined that perch did not find the invasive dreissid species palatable. In 2004, he determined that perch, over the intervening 10 years, had developped an appetite for the Quagga mussel. While sounding like good news, it is tempered with the knowledge that it introduces contaminants into the food chain, notably Clostridium botulinum.
External links
- Dreissina FAQs
- Perch Discover Nature's Junk Food
- Small blurb on Quagga musssel (with pic) on Anthony Ricciardi's site. Links to various papers and blurbs on other invasive species.
Note
The entries on the Quagga mussel and the Zebra mussel should probably be merged into one entry concerning Dreissina species. As well, most of the information presented is North American in perspective.
