Shell relatively elongate and narrowly hatchet-shaped with the posterior end flaring, anterior end from umbo relatively short, margin rounded. Posterior end relatively long and almost truncate but rounded. Dark olive brown, bluish internally. Differs from L. rugata in being broader in outline. As in all species of the genus, in young specimens the beaks and shell surface lack distinct sculpture.
Lortiella froggatti (Iredale,1934)
Class Bivalvia
Infraclass Heteroconchia
Cohort Palaeoheterodonta
Order Unionida
Superfamily Unionoidea
Family Hyriidae
Subfamily Velesunioninae
Genus Lortiella Iredale,1934
Original name: Lortiella froggatti Iredale,1934. In Iredale, T. (1934). The freshwater mussels of Australia. Australian Zoologist 8: 57-78, plts 3-6.
Type locality: Lennard River, Western Australia.The last major taxonomic revision of Australian freshwater mussels was by McMichael and Hiscock (1958).
Based on the available molecular results, Walker et al. (2014) pointed out that a reassessment of Australian hyriids is needed.
Shallow burrower in sand in streams and rivers. Suspension feeder. Larvae (glochidia) are brooded in the marsupia of the gills of females and, when released, to become parasitic on fish gills or fins where they presumably undergo metamorphosis before dropping to the sediment as free-living juvenile mussels.
Lennard and Fitzroy Rivers of the Kimberley region of Western Australia and the De Grey River east of Port Hedland in the Pilbara region.
Iredale, T. (1943). A basic list of the fresh water Mollusca of Australia. Australian Zoologist 10: 188-230.
Klunzinger, M. W., Jones, H. A., Keleher, J., & Morgan, D. L. (2013). A new record of Lortiella froggatti Iredale, 1934 (Bivalvia: Unionoida: Hyriidae) from the Pilbara region, Western Australia, with notes on anatomy and geographic range.Records of the Western Australian Museum 28: 1-6.
Klunzinger, M. W., Jones, H.A., Humphrey, C. L., Melchior, M., Raadik, T.A., Treby, S., Chandler, L. & Sheldon, F. (2023). Comparative diversity in glochidia of Australasian freshwater mussels. Frontiers in Environmental Science 12: 1305077.
Lamprell, K. & Healy, J. (1998). Bivalves of Australia, volume 2. Leiden, Backhuys Publishers.
McMichael, D. F. & Hiscock, I. D. (1958). A monograph of the freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Pelecypoda) of the Australian region. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 9: 372-508.
Ponder, W. F. & Bayer, M. (2004). A new species of Lortiella (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionoidea: Hyriidae) from northern Australia. Molluscan Research 24: 89-102.
Ponder, W. F. & Stanbury, P. J. (1972). Type specimens in the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney. Part 6: Molluscs. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 97: 42-43.
Smith, B. J. (1992). Non-marine Mollusca. Pp. i-xii, 1-408 in W. W. K. Houston. Zoological Catalogue of Australia, 8. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.
Walker, K. F. (1981). The distribution of freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Pelecypoda) in the Australian zoogeographic region. Pp. 1233-1249 in A. Keast. Ecological Biogeography of Australia. The Hague, Dr W. Junk.
Walker, K. F. (2004). A guide to the provisional identification of the freshwater mussels (Unionoida) of Australasia. Albury, Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre.
Walker, K. F., Byrne, M., Hickey, C. W. & Roper, D. S. (2001). Freshwater Mussels (Hyriidae) of Australasia. Pp. 5-31 in G. Bauer & Wächtler, K. Ecology and Evolution of the Freshwater Mussels Unionoida. Ecological Studies. Berlin, Springer-Verlag.
Walker, K. F., Jones, H. A. & Klunzinger, M. W. (2014). Bivalves in a bottleneck: taxonomy, phylogeography and conservation of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida) in Australasia. Hydrobiologia 735:61–79.
Zieritz, A., Sartori, A. F. & Klunzinger, M. W. (2013). Morphological evidence shows that not all Velesunioninae have smooth umbos. Journal of Molluscan Studies 79: 277–282.
