• Characteristics - the body is mottled brownish with a large, bony head, squarish in cross section with the interspace between the eyes broad and curved inward, this species is the host of the glochidial stage of the elk toe mussel
• Distribution - locally abundant in the upper reaches of rivers and streams in northeast Iowa and the entire Des Moines River drainage, rarely taken from the Mississippi River - occuring only in its upper reaches in Iowa
• Foods - immature aquatic insects, small mollusks and crustaceans

For more northern hog sucker information, see our printable pdf (135K) or Iowa Fish & Fishing.