This species is native to the eastern United States and Ontario, Canada.[1] In Canada, the eastern pondmussel has been adversely affected by zebra mussels, which were introduced near the end of the 1980s.[3] Originally assessed as endangered due to the existence of only two known Canadian populations,[3] the eastern pondmussel was placed on Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act in 2013.[4] However, a reassessment by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in 2017 identified seventeen additional subpopulations,[5] and the eastern pondmussel was relisted as "special concern" in August 2019.[4] The population of the lower Great Lakes has limited diversity in certain mitochondrial genetic markers compared to those of the eastern seaboard's population, evidence of a founder effect and suggestive of a post-glacial arrival of Atlantic coast mussels to the Great Lakes by a restricted route.[5]: 7 [6] The Walpole Island First Nation protects a population of eastern pondmussels residing in their tribal waters within the delta of Lake St. Clair.[3]: 12
Like many Unionoid mussels, female eastern pondmussels display a lure to attract their fish hosts (see video, right).
Say, T. (1817). Conchology. - In: Nicholson, W.: American edition of the British Encyclopedia, or, dictionary of arts and sciences comprising an accurate and popular view of the present improved state of human knowledge. First Edition, A-3 - C-6 [= 1-20], pl. [1-4]. page(s): [unpaginated], pl. 4 fig. 1
Watters, G.T. (2018). A preliminary review of the nominal genus Villosa of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionidae) in North America. Visaya. Suppl. 10: 3-139.
