Field Guide

Unlike their parasitic cousins in the flatworm group, turbellarians, or planarians, are tiny carnivores or detritus-eaters that glide smoothly across submerged leaves and other objects.

Unlike most other freshwater mussels, this species is hermaphrodic: An individual mussel can be both male and female.

This widespread species is one of the few Missouri mussels successful in shallow ponds and lakes.

The uniform shell thickness and hard, white nacre made this mussel a favorite for button manufacturing, in the days before most buttons were made of plastic.

Bryozoans are tiny, filter-feeding invertebrates. They create colonies that can be mossy, branching, or round and jellylike.

Sometimes called “water bees” or “water wasps,” backswimmers are predaceous and can deliver a painful bite if mishandled. True to their name, they swim belly-up, and their backs are keeled like a boat, which makes back-swimming easier.

Water scavenger beetles are a mostly aquatic family. They are similar to predaceous diving beetles, but unlike them many have a distinctive spine running down the center of their bellies.