92 ILLINOIS BIOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS [190 



of Fisheries has conducted many interesting experiments on the propaga- 

 tion of mussels by the artificial infection of fish with mussel glochidia and 

 the means and methods for restocking these cleaned-out areas are at hand. 

 It only remains for proper laws to be passed and enforced, by the states or 

 federal government, or both, regulating the time and place in which shelling 

 operations may be carried on. Reasonable time must be given, at least 

 three years, for the recovery of a depleted mussel bed. 



In this connection it would seem that the mussel fauna of such a stream 

 as the Big Vermilion River might form a reservoir from which the depleted 

 beds farther down the stream might be restocked by fish which had been 

 infected with glochidia from the commercial species living in the smaller 

 stream. The Big Vermilion contains eleven species that are used for 

 cutting button blanks and are considered valuable for this purpose by the 

 button manufacturers. These are: 



Amblema undulata Blue point 

 Lampsilis luteola Fat mucket 

 Lampsilis anodontoides Yellow sand-shell 

 Lampsilis ventricosa Pocket-book 

 Trilogonia iuberculata Buckhom 

 Quadrula pustulosa Warty-back 

 Quadrula lachrymosa Maple-leaf 

 Actinonaias ligamentina Mucket 

 Fusconaia rubiginoas Wabash pig-^;oe 

 Lasmigona coniplanata White heel-splitter 

 Lasmigona costata Fluted shell 



Several of the smaller shells are also used when shells are scarce, as 

 Lampsilis compressa, Quadrula metanevra, Obovaria circulus, and Strophitus 

 edentulus. In the Sangamon River about the same number of species suit- 

 able for the button industry occur and these are usually of fine quality. 



In their survey of the mussel fauna of the Kankakee basin, Wilson and 

 Clark (1912:35) recognize the value of these smaller streams, with a fauna 

 too small in individuals to be used by the shell fishermen, but containing 

 many of the essential species from which good button blanks may be cut. 

 These authors say: "The most valuable species are all good breeders 

 throughout the basin. This, taken in connection with the excellent quality 

 of the shells they produce and the good railroad facilities everywhere 

 available, makes this basin one of the best yet examined for the supply 

 of glochidia to be used in artificial mussel propagation." This statement 

 might apply with almost equal force to the Big Vermilion, which may 

 sometime be needed for a reservoir from which to propagate the mussels 

 in the larger rivers. 



Whether all of the fishes which have proved the most satisfactory hosts 

 for glochidia are abundant here is not known, but as young of nearly all the 



