"Quagga mussel" (Dreissena bugensis)

The Quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis), native to the Ukraine area, was introduced into the Great Lakes in the early 1990s. Quagga mussels are now found in much of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the Erie Canal, the upper St. Lawrence River and parts of Lake Huron. Quaggas are biofouling mussels that look much like zebra mussels and live in many of the same habitats. Both zebra mussels and quagga mussels have striped shells. Normally, they can be differentiated by the shape of the shell. Quaggas often have paler shells with finer lines than zebra mussels, but the color patterns of both species can vary considerably. Quagga mussels attach to hard substrates in freshwater habitats and cause many of the same problems as zebra mussels.

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U.S.Geological Survey
Keyword: Quagga_mussel

Photo: Quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis), B. May