About Velesunio ambiguus (R.A.Philippi, 1847)
Velesunio ambiguus (R.A.Philippi, 1847), commonly called the floodplain mussel or the billabong mussel in South Australia, is a species of freshwater bivalve belonging to the family Hyriidae. Within the Australian genus Velesunio, there are four additional cryptic species that all share a similar appearance to Velesunio ambiguus. This mussel is distributed across four Australian states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, where it gets the local name billabong mussel. This mussel has a lifespan of over 20 years, and can tolerate water temperatures ranging from around 4 °C to over 30 °C. For Australian Aboriginal people, Velesunio ambiguus is used as a food source, though its flesh is tough. It can also be used in fish ponds to filter microscopic algae from water.
