The American Midland Naturalist 
PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE UNIVERSITY 
OF NOTRE DAME, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA. 
' Vol. I. AUGUST, 1910. No. 9.* 
Notes on the Naiad Fauna of Northeastern lowa. 
S. W. GEISER. 
In this paper are embodied the results of careful and ex- 
tensive investigations carried on by the writer in the north- 
eastern part of the state of Iowa during the past three years. 
The collections made, now in greater part in the Museum of 
the Upper Iowa University, have been made chiefly from three 
rivers in this section. The Wapsipinicon, a large, sluggish 
prairie stream with a bottoni varying from the mud of the 
slough bottom, to sandy, gravelly, or even stony bottoms—has 
been systematically examined from Quasqueton, in Buchanan 
County, to Fairbank, in the extreme northwest portion of that 
county, a distance of about thirty-five miles, while occasional 
collections have been made as far north as Chickasaw County. 
The Turkey has been collected from at various points, notably 
at Elgin. In general characters the Turkey resembles the 
Wapsipinicon, but it is not nearly as large and it is also much 
more rapid. From the Volga, collections have been made from 
about fifteen miles of its course. These collections, augmented 
by contributions and exchanges from other streams in north- 
eastern lowa, gave me a fair basis for work. Specimens 
upon which this study is founded are contained in the Mu- 
seums of the Upper Iowa University and the Chicago Academy 
of Sciences. 
It is believed that the notes here presented may be of in- 
terest, since the work that has hitherto been carried on in the 
study of Naiades of Iowa has been rather confined to southern 
and southeastern Iowa. For whatever we know of the distri- 
bution of the freshwater mussels appearing in the state, we are 
indebted to a number of naturalists. Lea! (1857) and Pratt? 
(1876) described new species from the waters of the state, 
and general catlogues have been prepared by Witter? (1878) 
(1) Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. IX: p. 84. (1857). 
(2) Proc. Dav. Acad. Sci. 1876: pp. 167-168. 
(3) Quart. Joun. Conch. 1878: pp. 385-394. 
* October 15, 1910.—Pages 229 to 244. 
