Unionid embryos spend the first stage of development in the marsupial portion of the female unionid's gills, where they develop into glochidia, the parasitic stage. |
The mussel fauna, past, present, and future, of Sulfur Fork Creek and lower Red River, Tennessee, and laboratory transformation of glochidia. |
Many mussel species depend on specific species of fish to serve as hosts for mussel larvae, or glochidia. |
At mussel refuges, the risk to introduce pathogens is compounded by the need for host fishes for glochidia transformation. |
Glochidia were once believed to be parasites on the gills of the parents. |
Weather conditions prevented data collection in the spring and, therefore, no conclusions could be drawn about the relationship between aggregation and glochidia release. |