Significant Recent Records of Unionid Mussels in Northeast Texas Rivers

Five rivers in northeastern Texas, U.S.A. were surveyed for Unionid mussels from 2010 to 2012. We sampled 165 sites in the North and South Sulphur rivers, the Little Cypress Bayou, Black and Big Cypress creeks, the upper Sabine River, the Neches River, the Angelina River, the Attoyac Bayou, and the upper Trinity River. Each location was accessed by kayak and timed tactile surveys of 50 to 300 m of the river were conducted. We recorded a total of 20,134 mussels of 35 species, of which 16,714 were live. State listed species were found in all the rivers. The Neches River was the most speciose of all the large rivers of northeastern Texas and should be of prime conservation concern. The Sulphur River contained a few species that extended in from Oklahoma. The Trinity River, which runs through the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, surprisingly had two threatened species.