SEDENTARY FRESHWATER LAMELLIBRANCHS | |
| Unio and Anodonta are two genera of very specialised fresh water bivalves. Both brood their eggs in their mantle cavities until they develop into glochidia larvae. The larvae undergo a transient parasitic stage on fish, which ensures dispersal of the sedentary adults. The glochidia feed on the host’s tissues, which grow over the parasite to form cysts. The larvae develop into small clams, which break out of the cysts, fall to the bottom and mature into adults. |  |