Epioblasma lenior (I. Lea, 1842)
Narrow catspaw, Stone's pearly mussel
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Unio lenis I. Lea, 1840 (junior homonym of Unio lenis Conrad, 1838); Unio lenior I. Lea, 1842; Dysnomia (Penita) lenior (I. Lea, 1842); Dysnomia (Truncillopsis) lenior (I. Lea, 1842); Dysnomia lenior (I. Lea, 1842); Margaron (Unio) lenior (I. Lea, 1842); Plagiola lenior (I. Lea, 1842); Truncilla (Truncilla) lenior (I. Lea, 1842); Truncilla lenior (I. Lea, 1842)
See Graf & Cummings (2025) for a more complete taxonomic history.
Conservation Status
Extinct (Bogan, 2000b; Régnier et al., 2009; Cowie et al., 2017; Graf & Cummings, 2021, 2025)
Last record: 1965 (Bogan, 2000b)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct
Distribution & Habitat
Alabama & Tennessee, USA
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Holotype: USNM 86130 (Graf & Cummings, 2025)
3 specimens are in the Illinois Natural History Survey mollusc [url=http://www.inhs.illinois.edu/animals_plants/mollusk/]collection[/url]:
INHS 20298
INHS 20533
INHS 21111
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Lea, Isaac. (1842). Description of new fresh water and land shells. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. (NS) 8(2): 163-250 (+ 1 page contents, 1 page corrigenda), plates 5-27. [16 December; also issued separately as volume III of "Observations on the genus Unio"]
Other references:
Adams, Henry and Adams, Arthur. (1857). The Genera of Recent Mollusca; Arranged According to their Organization, Vol. II, (31-32): 477-540. London: J. Van Voorst.
Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (eds). (1996). 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. pp. 378. International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Bieler, R. (2021). Isaac Lea's (1792-1886) substitutions and other modifications of his own names of molluscan species. Malacologia 64(1): 1-56. https://doi.org/10.4002/040.064.0101
Bogan, Arthur E. (1993). Freshwater bivalve extinctions (Mollusca: Unionoida): A search for causes. American Zoologist 33(6): 599-609. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/33.6.599
Bogan, A. E. (Mollusc Specialist Group). (2000a). Epioblasma lenior. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 25 January 2015.
Bogan, A.E. (Mollusc Specialist Group). (2000b). Epioblasma lenior. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2000: e.T7874A12860206. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2000.RLTS.T7874A12860206.en. Accessed on 14 June 2022.
Bogan, Arthur E. and Parmalee, Paul W. (1983). Tennessee's Rare Wildlife. Volume II: The Mollusks. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Burch, J. B. (1975). Freshwater unionacean clams (Mollusca: Pelecypoda) of North America. Malacological Publications: Hamburg, Michigan. 204 pp.
Conrad, T. A. (1853). A synopsis of the family of Naïades of North America, with notes, and a table of some of the genera and sub-genera of the family, according to their geographical distribution, and descriptions of genera and sub-genera. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 6: 243-269.
Cowie, Robert H., Régnier, Claire, Fontaine, Benoît, and Bouchet, Philippe. (2017). Measuring the Sixth Extinction: what do mollusks tell us? The Nautilus 131(1): 3-41.
Frierson, L. S. (1927). A Classified and Annotated Checklist of the North American Niades. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press. 111 pp.
Graf, Daniel L. and Cummings, Kevin S. (2021). A ‘big data’ approach to global freshwater mussel diversity (Bivalvia: Unionoida), with an updated checklist of genera and species. Journal of Molluscan Studies 87(1): eyaa034 (36 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyaa034
Graf, Daniel L. and Cummings, Kevin S. (2025). The Freshwater Mussels (Unionoida) of the World (and other less consequential bivalves). MUSSEL Project Web Site, https://www.mussel-project.net/. Accessed 2 July 2025.
Groombridge, B. (ed.). (1994). 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Haag, Wendell R. (2009). Past and future patterns of freshwater mussel extinctions in North America during the Holocene, pp. 107-128. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Haas, F. (1969). Superfamilia Unionacea. Das Tierreich 88: x, 1-663. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.
Hilton-Taylor, Craig. (2000). 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Hopper, G. W., Bucholz, J. R., DuBose, T. P., Fogelman, K. J., Keogh, S. M. et al. (2023). A trait dataset for freshwater mussels of the United States of America. Scientific Data 10: 745 (pp. 1-15). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02635-9
IUCN. (1990). IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Johnson, R. I. (1978). Systematics and zoogeography of Plagiola (= Dysnomia = Epioblasma), an almost extinct genus of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) from middle North America. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 148: 239-321.
Johnson, R. I. (1980). Zoogeography of North American Unionacea (Mollusca: Bivalvia) north of the maximum Pleistocene glaciation. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 149(2): 77-189.
Lea, Isaac. (1840). Descriptions of new fresh water and land shells. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 1(13): 284-289. [6 November]
Lea, Isaac. (1852). A Synopsis of the Family of Naïades. Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea. 88 pp.
Lea, Isaac. (1870). A Synopsis of the Family of Naïades. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea. 184 pp.
Mirarchi, R. E. (2004). Alabama Wildlife. Volume One: A Checklist of Vertebrates and Selected Invertebrates: Aquatic Mollusks, Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals. University of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 209 pp.
MolluscaBase eds. (2025). MolluscaBase. Epioblasma lenior (I. Lea, 1842). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=857296 on 2025-07-02
Ortmann, A. E. (1918). The nayades (freshwater mussels) of the Upper Tennessee drainage. With notes on synonymy and distribution. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 57(6): 521-626.
Ortmann, A. E. (1924). The naiad-fauna of Duck River in Tennessee. American Midland Naturalist 9(1): 18-62.
Ortmann, A. E. (1925). The naiad-fauna of the Tennessee River system below Walden Gorge. American Midland Naturalist 9(8): 321-372. https://doi.org/10.2307/2992763
Parmalee, P. W. and Bogan, Arthur E. (1998). The Freshwater Mussels of Tennessee. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. 328 pp.
Régnier, Claire, Fontaine, Benoît and Bouchet, Philippe. (2009). Not Knowing, Not Recording, Not Listing: Numerous Unnoticed Mollusk Extinctions. Conservation Biology 23(5): 1214-1221. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01245.x [Appendix S1-S2]
Roble, S. M. (2016). Natural Heritage Resources of Virginia: Rare Animals. Natural Heritage Technical Report 16-07. Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage, Richmond, Virginia. 56 pp.
Simpson, Charles Torrey. (1900). Synopsis of the naiades, or pearly fresh-water mussels. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 22(1205): 501-1044, pl. 18.
Simpson, Charles Torrey. (1914). A descriptive catalogue of the naiades, or pearly fresh-water mussels. Parts I-III. Detroit, Michigan: Bryant Walker. 1540 pp.
Stansbery, D. H. (1970). American Malacological Union Symposium: Rare and Endangered Mollusks: 2. Eastern Freshwater Mollusks (I) The Mississippi and St. Lawrence Systems. Malacologia 10(1): 9-22.
Stansbery, D. H. (1971). Rare and endangered freshwater mollusks in eastern United States, pp. 5-18. In: Jorgensen, S. E. and Sharp, R. W. Proceedings of a symposium of rare and endangered mollusks (naiads) of the United States. Twin Cities, Minnesota: U.S. Department of the Interior. 79 pp.
Turgeon, D. D., Bogan, A. E., Coan, E. V., Emerson, W. K., Lyons, W. G. et al. (1988). Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Mollusks. American Fisheries Society Special Publication (16). 277 pp.
Wells, S. M., Pyle, R. M. and Collins, N. M. (compilers). (1983). The IUCN Invertebrate Red Data Book. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Williams, James D., Bogan, Arthur E., Butler, Robert S., Cummings, Kevin S., Garner, Jeffrey T., Harris, John L., Johnson, Nathan A. and Watters, G. Thomas. (2017). A revised list of the freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionida) of the United States and Canada. Freshwater Mollusk Biology and Conservation 20: 33-58.
Williams, James D., Bogan, Arthur E. and Garner, Jeffrey T. (2008). Freshwater mussels of Alabama and the Mobile Basin in Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. xv + 908 pp.
Williams, James D., Warren, M. L., Cummings, Kevin S., Harris, J. L. and Neves, R. J. (1993). Conservation status of freshwater mussels of the United States and Canada. Fisheries 18(9): 6-22. https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8446(1993)018%3C0006:CSOFMO%3E2.0.CO;2
Wright, B. H. (1888). Check List of North American Unionidae and Other Fresh Water Bivalves. Portland, Oregon: Dorne & Cook, Printers. 8 pp. (un paginated).
http://naturalsciences.org/sites/default/files/files/documents/research-collections/Bogan_TN_Endangered_Mollusks.pdf
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/10364/epioblasma-lenior-narrow-catspaw
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