''Ptychobranchus occidentalis'' is a species of

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. It is endemic to the United States, where it is known from Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. Its common name is Ouachita kidneyshell.''Ptychobranchus occidentalis''.
NatureServe. 2012. This mussel packages its larvae, or glochidia, in a membranous conglutinate which resembles a small prey item. When a fish comes to investigate this lure, the glochidia attach to its gills and use it as a host during their development.Orangethroat darter (''Etheostoma spectabile'') with the conglutinates of Ouachita kidneyshell, (''Ptychobranchus occidentalis'').
Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society.

References

occidentalis This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants i ...

Endemic molluscs of the United States Bivalves described in 1836 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Unionidae-stub