#4631 · 🐌 snails, slugs & other molluscs

Painter's Mussel

🇳🇱 Schildersmossel ·Unio pictorum

LCleast concern 🐌 Snails, slugs & other molluscs 📍 in the Netherlands

8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

The painter's mussel , scientific name Unio pictorum , is a species of medium-sized freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels.

base stats

NL sightings 54iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 2,944iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

Spotted 54 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
2,944 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).

fact sheet

English: Painter's Mussel
Nederlands: Schildersmossel
scientific name: Unio pictorum
class: Bivalvia
order: Unionida
family: Unionidae
IUCN Red List: LC · least concern
sightings in NL: 54
sightings in Europe: 1,903
sightings worldwide: 2,944
GBIF records in NL: 3,097
weight: —
length: —
lifespan: —
named: 1758

IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.

relatives· Unionidae

Sources: iNaturalist taxon 151758, Wikidata Q943262, GBIF 4374772, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.