There's No Place Like Home

From September, 1994 (update #22)

MONTREAL, Que. - There has been speculation about the ability of zebra mussels to enhance populations of other benthic animals by providing pseudofeces as a food source and offering a safe haven as interstitial habitat. McGill University biologist Anthony Ricciardi recently reported that zebra mussels do, in fact, provide a new home for some chironomid flies, also known as non-biting midges (or gnats to most people). Ricciardi observed large numbers of chironomid larvae living inside zebra and quagga mussels in the Soulanges Canal area of the Upper St. Lawrence River, southwest of the Isle de Montr al. These larvae, of the genus "Paratanytarsus," appeared to cause no damage to their host, which biologists call a commensal relationship. The midges most commonly inhabited the mantle cavity near the inhalant siphon. The midge larvae Ricciardi observed may belong to a species that has been reported to foul water supply systems and has been found blocking the filters of aquaculture circulation equipment in New Brunswick. Ricciardi's results will appear in the September issue of the "Canadian Journal of Zoology.".

ID: 199409-10.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.