At 10:13 PM 8/13/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear All,
>Just happened to be looking at an old Wards Catalogue (circa 1910) where
>that shell (as Lampsilis leptodon) from Michigan was available for 15
>cents.  This shell (like so many others that have gone on the list
>recently) is not endangered, and one of the rivers I am familiar with,
>the lower Meramec in Missouri, it is quite a common shell.
>

An endangered species need not be locally rare or even uncommon. Leptodon
and a host of other endangered species are common within a very narrow range
- like the lower Meramec River. However, the listing takes into account the
VULNERABILITY of a species as well. Leptodon's historic range has been
greatly diminished and although it may still be common in several places,
the idea behind the listing is that those remaining populations are at risk.
Common or not, an ecological disaster in the Meramec could extirpate them.
Having all your eggs in one basket, regardless of the number of eggs, is
considered risky by the Powers That Be and perhaps worthy of endangered status.

G. Thomas Watters
Ohio Biological Survey &
Aquatic Ecology Laboratory
Ohio State University
1315 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH  USA
v: 614-292-6170
f: 614-292-0181