page_title: Ptychobranchus subtentum
section_title: Reproduction
hierarchical_section_title: Ptychobranchus subtentum / Reproduction
caption_attribution_description: The fluted kidneyshell has been eliminated from more than 50% of the total number of streams from which it was historically known. It is only found only in portions of the Cumberland and Tennessee River systems of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing the fluted kidneyshell as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Photo: Jeff Powell, USFWS.
context_page_description: Ptychobranchus subtentum, also known as the fluted kidneyshell, is a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels.
  This species is endemic to the drainages of the Cumberland River and the Tennessee River in the United States.
context_section_description: All Unionidae are known to use the gills, fins, or skin of a host fish for nutrients during the larval glochidia stage. Ptychobranchus subtentum enclose their larvae in a membranous capsule that resembles the pupae of black flies. When a fish bites the capsule bait, the Ptychobranchus subtentum larvae are forced out through the mimic capsule's "eyes" and then attach to the gills of the host fish.
caption: Shell morphology
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