Least brook lamprey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Least brook lamprey |
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| Scientific classification | |
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Petromyzontidae
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| Genus: |
Lampetra
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| Species: |
L. aepyptera
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| Binomial name | |
| Lampetra aepyptera (C. C. Abbott, 1860)
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The least brook lamprey (Lampetra aepyptera) is a common type of lamprey. It does not feed on other animals, unlike some other lampreys. You can find it in the Mississippi River area and along parts of the Atlantic coast.
What Does It Look Like?
Most of its life, the least brook lamprey lives as a worm-like larva called an ammocoete. When they are small (less than 5 cm), ammocoetes are clear with a dark head. As they grow bigger, they turn a dark or golden brown color.
Ammocoetes have dark spots on their heads that can sense light and dark. After they change into the juvenile stage, the lamprey becomes golden with yellowish fins. Tiny teeth grow on their mouth, which is shaped like a suction cup (called an oral disk). Their eyes also fully develop from the eye spots.
Least brook lampreys do not have a separate juvenile stage. They go straight from being an ammocoete to an adult. When they become adults, their bodies swell up as their reproductive organs grow.
It can be tricky to identify these lampreys just by looking at their bodies, because they can look different depending on where they live. The best way to tell them apart is by looking at the pattern of their teeth. This pattern does not change much between different groups of lampreys.
Life Cycle
Adult least brook lampreys lay their eggs in the spring. They usually choose the shallow, upper parts of streams. The males, sometimes helped by females, build small nests. They pick up pebbles with their oral disks and move them to create a shallow dip in the streambed.
The eggs are sticky and attach to the sand and gravel in the nest. Several adults might use the same nest. Also, one female might lay eggs with more than one male. After laying their eggs, all adult lampreys die.
When the eggs hatch, the tiny embryos stay in the nest for about a month. Then, they grow into ammocoetes. These ammocoetes leave the nest and find slow-moving water with sandy areas. They burrow into the sand and start feeding.
Ammocoetes live hidden in the sand for 3 to 7 years. They eat tiny plants, animals, and decaying matter that floats by. In late summer or fall, the mature ammocoetes begin to change. This change is called metamorphosis. They are getting ready to become adults and lay eggs the next year.
During metamorphosis and as adults, brook lampreys cannot eat. Their digestive system does not work anymore. They only live for about four to six months as adults.
