Unio pictorum

Unio pictorum, the painter's mussel, is a species of medium-sized freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. ^[2]

Painter's mussel
Left valve of a brown shell
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Bivalvia
Order:	Unionida
Family:	Unionidae
Genus:	Unio
Species:	U. pictorum
Binomial name
Unio pictorum (Linnaeus, 1758)
Distribution of Unio pictorum in Europe.

Internal view of both valves

Unio pictorum is moving on the muddy bottom of a freshwater lake. Russia, the Southern Urals.

This species lives in Europe. It is called the "painter's mussel" because the shell was historically used as a conveniently sized and shaped receptacle for holding artist's paint.

Subspecies

• † Unio pictorum alexeevi Mangikian, 1929
• † Unio pictorum pseudorumanus Chepalyga, 1967
• † Unio pictorum rumanoides Chepalyga, 1967

Synonyms

• Limnium pictorum(Linnaeus, 1758) ·
• Lymnium pictorum (Linnaeus, 1758) ·
• Mya nodosa Gmelin, 1791 (a junior synonym)
• Mya ovalis Philipsson, 1788 (a junior synonym)
• Mya pictorum Linnaeus, 1758 (original combination)
• Unio (Unio) kalmykorum Bogachev, 1924 (junior subjective synonym)
• Unio (Unio) limosus Nilsson, 1822 (a junior synonym)
• Unio (Unio) pictorum (Linnaeus, 1758) ·
• Unio (Unio) protractus Lindholm, 1932 (junior subjective synonym)
• Unio (Unio) rostrata Lamarck, 1819 (a junior synonym)
• Unio annulatus Kobelt, 1911 (a junior synonym)
• Unio ascanius Kobelt, 1912 (junior synonym)
• Unio deshayesii Michaud, 1831 (a junior synonym)
• Unio gaudioni Drouët, 1881 (junior synonym)
• Unio gentilis F. Haas, 1911junior subjective synonym
• Unio inflatus Studer, 1820 (a junior synonym)
• Unio kalmykorum Bogachev, 1924 (a junior synonym)
• Unio latirostris Küster, 1853 (a junior synonym)
• Unio limosus Nilsson, 1822 (a junior synonym)
• Unio limosus behningi Starobogatov & Pirogov, 1970 (a junior synonym)
• Unio lindholmi Zhadin, 1938 (a junior synonym)
• Unio longirostris Rossmässler, 1836 ·
• Unio longirostris schrenckianus Clessin, 1880 (a junior synonym)
• Unio maltzani Küster, 1854 (a junior synonym)
• Unio pictorum okensis Zhadin, 1938 (a junior synonym)
• Unio pictorum var. grandis Rossmässler, 1842 (a junior synonym)
• Unio pictorum var. okae Kobelt, 1911 (invalid; junior homonym of Unio...)
• Unio pictorum var. okensis Zhadin, 1938 (junior synonym)
• Unio pictorum var. pachyodon H. Jordan, 1879 junior subjective synonym
• Unio pictorum var. pygmaeus Zhadin, 1938 (a junior synonym)
• Unio pictorum var. tumens de Joannis, 1859 (a junior synonym)
• Unio pictorum var. vinceleus de Joannis, 1859 (a junior synonym)
• Unio platyrhynchus Rossmässler, 1835 (a junior synonym)
• Unio ponderosus Rossmässler, 1842 (a junior synonym)
• Unio praeposterus Küster, 1853 (a junior synonym)
• Unio protractus Lindholm, 1932 ·
• † Unio protractus subpictorum Lindholm, 1932 (subjective synonym)
• Unio quinqueannulatus Küster, 1854 (junior synonym)
• Unio rostrata Lamarck, 1819 ·
• Unio rostratus Lamarck, 1819 (wrong gender agreement)
• Unio schrenkianus Clessin, 1880 (a junior synonym)
• Unio voltzii Kobelt, 1911 (invalid; not Koch & Dunker, 1837)

Distribution

The native distribution of this species is Europe and Siberia (Russia).^[1]

• Croatia
• Czech Republic - in Bohemia, in Moravia,^[3] least concern (LC);^[4][5] Czech code, Decree for implementation, No. 395/1992 Sb. (and No. 175/2006 Sb.) - Critically Threatened species.
• Slovakia^[3] - not in red lists
• Estonia – frequent.
• Germany
  • endangered (gefährdet)^[6]
  • Listed as specially protected species in annex 1 in Bundesartenschutzverordnung.
• Netherlands - Common (algemeen)^[7][8]
• Serbia
• Russia
• Sweden - not so common, scattered occurrence^[9]
• British Isles - mostly in England

Biotope: water bodies and slower streams.