Ohio Lamprey

Ohio Lamprey (Icthyomyzon bdellium)

One of two parasitic species of lampreys native to Ohio, this Ohio endangered species is known from only a few streams in the Ohio River drainage.

The Ohio lamprey spends its juvenile life buried in small semicircular burrows which they dig out of sand, muck and organic substrates of small streams. While hidden within these burrows, the blind ammocoetes will poke their heads out and filter microscopic food from the current of the stream.

Thus, the presence of silt and other pollutants can eliminate populations as the ammocoetes are easily suffocated by accumulations of silt.

Upon maturation into sexually immature adults (marked by the development of the eyes and the oral disc), the Ohio lamprey moves into larger bodies of water such as the Ohio River where there are sufficient populations of large fishes to prey upon.

After the lamprey fully matures it drops free of the fish host and returns to the stream it originally came from to spawn. Spawning occurs in the late spring on gravelly riffles in moderate currents where adults cooperate to construct a circular nest (depression) within which mating and egg laying take place. The adults will die shortly after spawning.

In Ohio populations have been depressed or eliminated as a result of siltation, pollution, and construction of dams.