Ferguson, Dale V.

Heidt, Gary A.

English

UARK (University of Arkansas )

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 34 Article 35 1980 Profile of Human-Rabid Skunk Contacts in Arkansas: 1977-1979 Dale V. Ferguson University of Arkansas at Little Rock Gary A. Heidt University of Arkansas at Little Rock Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas  Part of the Population Biology Commons Recommended Citation Ferguson, Dale V. and Heidt, Gary A. (1980) "Profile of Human-Rabid Skunk Contacts in Arkansas: 1977-1979," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 34 , Article 35. Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol34/iss1/35 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This General Note is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu. 112 Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol. XXXIV,1980ttimetui puKitanuA Chamberlin 9,16/78 4 SN Roadslj,lfTKontLneJUa pyiumUi&U 6/12/79 6 SN R°.idsij,ll(Walckenaer) 9/16/78 4 P Roadside E*0 ,<:i V.:!r-. (Vlllers) 8/24/79 8 SN Roads;", V5/7/78 1 SN Roadside 12/4/78 3 SN """diu/iM7/25/79 4 SN Roadside10/18/79 5 P Roadside Micryphantidae t11/18/79 7 P Roadside EpeAigone tAldzntaXa. (Emerton) 7/15/79 7 S Foreit B10/25/79 5 SN Roadside EpeAtgone macu&tfa (Banks) 612/79 6 S Form flWtlonlta. mica/Ua Emerton 7/15/79 2 SN Roadside EpeAigonc ootumnata (Emerton) 10/15/78 1 S Fore,t KHllonita. iabta (Keyserling) 7/15/79 2 SN Roadside GiammonaXa macuhUa (Banks) 11/18/79 7 S Foreit I]Gnammorurfa inoiUa (Emerton) 4/11/79 4 S Forest IMlmetiaae 10/25/79 5 S Forest IIMime-toi ¦LnteAie.ctoH Hentz 5/7/78 1 SN Roadside tlalcklnaeAa vigtfax (Blackwall) 7/15/79 S Foreit 11___^_i**Species notpublished prior to the present collection.••1 Donaldson 5 Fulton***S—Sieve2 Randall 6 White Oak Lake SN—Sweep net3 Columbus 7 Garland City P—Hand picking4 Fordyce 8 El Dorado MD—Mud-dauber nests |COMSTOCK, J. H. 1948. The spider book. Comstock Pub. Co., GERTSCH, W. J. 1949. American spiders. D. Van Nostrand Co., 1Ithaca, New York. 729 p. Princeton, New Jersey. 285 p.DORRIS, P. R. 1972. Checklist of spiders collected inMississippi KASTON, B. J. and E. KASTON. 1953. How to know the spiders. Icompared with preliminary study of Arkansas spiders. Proc. William C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa. 220 p. .Ark.Acad. Sci. 26:83-86. jDORRIS, P. R. and F.BURNSIDE. 1977. Acontinuation of spider |research in Arkansas: Ouachita Mountain area. Proc. Ark.Acad. Sci. 31:114-116.PEGGY RAE DORRIS, Department ofBiology,Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas 71923.PROFILE OF HUMAN-RABID SKUNK CONTACTS INARKANSAS: 1977-1979Inrecent years, rabies has become a serious problem in the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) population of Arkansas. With 98 positive 1cases in1977, 140 in1978 and 297 in 1979, Arkansas ranks first in the number of skunk rabies per square mile. The Arkansas Department of IHealth, in1979, declared rabies instriped skunks tobe of epidemic proportion. This paper presents aprofile ofhuman contacts with rabid skunks Iover this three-year period. tfUsing information gathered from the Arkansas Department ofHealth, those individuals who had contact withlaboratory-confirmed rabid \skunks were interviewed either by questionnaire or by telephone in an effort to determine the behavior of the skunk, the habitat inwhich the skunk uwas killed, time of day of the contact and whether or notother skunks had been seen behaving ina similar manner. Response to this pollvaried Ifrom 40% in1977, 80% in1978 and 95% in1979.Table 1summarizes the behavior ofrabid skunks at the time contact was made. As can be seen, roughly half of the skunks behaved in an ag-gressive manner. Another one-third were either non-aggressive but unafraid or behaved in a sick or disoriented manner. These data agree withRichards' (1957. NorthDakota Outdoors 20:4-5, 16) observations that rabid skunks are "most aggressive and determined" than any other form ofwildlife in their attacks on humans and on other animals. Table 2indicates that most rabid skunks inthe acute state ofinfection are solitary.Table 3identifies habitats in which the skunks were killed. Over half of the skunks were killed inand around buildings inthe country. Thestriped skunk is increasingly being found inclose approximation to human habitation (Verts. 1967. The biology of the striped skunk. Univ. 111.'Press. 218 pp.). The fact that such a large number of the rabid skunks were killed in and around buildings, further demonstrates the potentialdanger ofrabies to human and domestic animals. •Most of the rabid skunks encountered inthese three years (75%) were active during daylight hours (Table 4). To some degree, this may Jreflect human activity patterns. However, it clearly illustrates that the rabid skunk's activity often deviates drastically from the normal nocturnal 1or crepuscular pattern. jTablet. General Behavior ofRabid Skunk Table 2. Have Other Skunks Been Seen Behaving in a SimilarBEHAVIOR 1977 1978 1979 TOTAL Manner.Aggressive 12U7)1 63(60) 122(46) 197(48) 1978 1979 TOTAL jUnafraid but not aggressiveDisoriented or sick6(18) 14(13) 54(20) 74(18)11(33) 15(14) 62(23) 88(22)1(3) 4(4) 6(2) 11(3)3(9) 10(9) 25(9) 38(9)9(29) 1 28(27) 69(26) 106(26)22(71) 76(73) 199(74) 297(74)<YESNONormalDead1- Parenthesis indicate percentage1 - Parenthesis indicates percentage112Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 34 [1980], Art. 35Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1980¦Ii'fArkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol.XXXIV,1980113Table 3. Habitat Skunk Killed Table 4. Timeof Day Skunk KilledHABITAJ__ 1977 1978 lj)79 TOTAL TIME 1977 1978 1979 TOTALWoodland 3(8)] 20(14) 51(13) 74(13) 6:00-12:00 A.M. 19(58)]44(42) 131(48) 194(47)Open Field or Pasture 3(8) 20(14) 68(17) 91(16) 12:00-6:00 P.M. 6(18) 29(28) 81(29) 116(28)Buildings in Country 17(71) 88(61) 199(51) 314(55) 6:00-12:00 P.M. 5(15) 15(15) 35(13) 55(14)Inside City Limits 4(10) 10(7) 29(8) 43(8) 12:00-6:00 A.M. 3(9) 15(15) 28(10) 46(11)Along Railroad 0(0) 0(0) 15(4) 15(3)Edge of Water Source 1(3) 5(4) 25(7) 31(5)1-Parenthesis indicate percentage 1 - Parenthesis indicate percentageWhile these data are based on observations made by untrained persons, we feel that they are consistent enough to draw the followingpro-file: the rabid skunk coming in contact withhumans generally willbe solitary, aggressive or unafraid and found around buildings inthe countryduring the daylight hours (usually inthe morning). Since over 85% ofskunks tested by the Arkansas Department ofHealth are positive forrabies,90% of the total cases of rabies are attributable to skunks and because of the epidemic ofskunk rabies, any skunk seen during daylight hours inArkansas should be assumed rabid and treated accordingly. Also, Parker (1962. Proc. U.S. Livestock Sanit. Assoc. 65:273-280) stated that inareaswhere rabies inskunks isprevalent, sighting a skunk during daylight hours is "reasonable grounds to suspect the animal of being infected with thedisease." The characteristics outlined herein demonstrate the effectiveness of the skunk as a perpetuator and disseminator ofrabies.DALE V.FERGUSON and GARYA.HEIDT, Dept. ofBiology,University ofArkansas atLittleRock. LittleRock, Arkansas 72204.SIGNIFICANT ADDITIONS TO THE MOLLUSCANFAUNA OF THE ILLINOISRIVER, ARKANSASInGordon et al. (1980a), the molluscan fauna of the Illinois River in northwestern Arkansas was described. Thirty-nine taxa were listed.This faunal assemblage was compared toBranson (1967), the onlyother available report on the molluscan fauna of an Ozarkian west slope drain-age, and some aspects of the local distribution of species endemic to the Interior Highlands were discussed. The distribution and identification ofendemic forms and the Arkansas unionacean fauna have been further discussed in Gordon et al. (1980b). During the past year, additional sampleswere collected from the Illinois River and west slope drainages inMissouri (tributaries of the Neosho River). Methods were previously described(Gordon et al. 1980a).Fusconaia ozarkensis (Call) and Pisidium fallax Sterki have been identified from the Illinois River. Additionally, F. ozarkensis isreportedfor the first time from Kansas (Spring River), and the Kansan records of Call (1885-1887) and Scammon (1906) are confirmed for Actinonaiasellipsiformis ellipsiformis (Conrad) (see Murray and Leonard, 1962) which appears tohave been recently misinterpreted as Villosa iris (Lea) bySchuster and DuBois (1979). Within the larger drainage systems of the west slope of the Ozark Plateaus, the unionid fauna appears to be fairlysimilar (Table 1).The Interior Highlands are composed of two separate geological assemblages whichhave been shown to possess a distinct endemic mollus-can fauna (van der Schalie and van der Schalie, 1950; Gordon et al. 1980b). Ofthe eight endemic taxa ofUnionidae, six are known to occur in theOzark Plateaus, four of these six are restricted to the Ozark Plateaus, and the other two are distributed throughout the region (Ptychobranchusoccidentalis [Conrad] and Cyprogenia aberti [Conrad]). The remaining two species, Arkansia wheeleri Ortmann and Walker and Villosa arkansas-ensis (Lea), are restricted to the Ouachita Mountains (Gordon et al. 1980b). Collections from the areas adjacent to the Illinois River have shownLampsitis reeveiana (Lea) and Actinonaias ellipsiformispleasii (Marsh) to be present inthe southern Ozarkian drainage of the White River but notthe west slope drainages represented by the Illinois,Elk, and Spring rivers. Likewise, L.rafinesqueana Frierson occurs throughout the west slopedrainages (Table 1)but notinthe White River.Fusconaia ozarkensis is common toboth the south and the west slope drainage systems.Three natural unionacean faunal subdivisions appear tobe present inthe Ozark Plateaus. The west slope fauna is typified by /¦'. ozarkensisand L. rafinesqueana. The fauna south of the Ozark Crest is composed ofF. ozarkensis, A. ellipsiformis pleasii. and L. reeveiana. North of theOzark Crest, the only endemic unionid isL.reeveiana. The overlap within these subdivisions and the presence of the two wide-spread species ill-ustrates the close affinityof the fauna.Further observations of the unionid fauna suggest some additional associations. Cyprogenia aberti is generally distributed throughout theInterior Highlands and west into Oklahoma and Kansas (Gordon et al. 1980b) and has been found throughout the Spring River system. For thesereasons, it is highlyprobable that C. aberti is present inthe IllinoisRiver, although itmay occur only downstream in Oklahoma. Similar distribu-tion patterns are reflected in the occurrence of several other species listed by Branson (1967) for the lower Spring River (see Table 1). Also,Alasmidonta marginata Say and/4, calceola (Lea)have been recorded from the Elk and Spring rivers (Table 1).They are known historically fromthe White River (Gordon et al. 1980b). Baker (1928) has noted a close distributional association between these two species of Alasmidonta. Thesmall size and habit of burrowing into the substrate byA.calceola make itdifficult to find(Utterback, 1915; Baker, 1928). Alasmidonta marginatawas found inthe Illinois River;therefore, itis postulated that A calceola also occurs inthe IllinoisRiver.tPisidium fallax generally has been considered a northern species. With exception of a single record from Alabama, it had not been foundhof the extent of maximum glaciation. Itspresence in the IllinoisRiver and several adjacent drainages represents a new regional record forspecies (Gordon et al. 1980c). These records and Wheeler's (1918) observations on the Ouachita Mountains molluscan assemblage illustrateneed for further study of the Sphaeriidae within the Interior Highlands. Pisidium fallax easily may be mistaken forP. casertanum orP.pressum. Itsdesignation as the "deceptive" (from the Latin,fallac)Pisidium appears tohave been appropriate.113Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 34 [1980], Art. 35https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol34/iss1/35

Profile of Human-Rabid Skunk Contacts in Arkansas: 1977-1979

ScholarWorks@UARK

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 34 Article 351980Profile of Human-Rabid Skunk Contacts inArkansas: 1977-1979Dale V. FergusonUniversity of Arkansas at Little RockGary A. HeidtUniversity of Arkansas at Little RockFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Population Biology CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This General Note is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the ArkansasAcademy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu.Recommended CitationFerguson, Dale V. and Heidt, Gary A. (1980) "Profile of Human-Rabid Skunk Contacts in Arkansas: 1977-1979," Journal of theArkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 34 , Article 35.Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol34/iss1/35112 Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol. XXXIV,1980ttimetui puKitanuA Chamberlin 9,16/78 4 SN Roadslj,lfTKontLneJUa pyiumUi&U 6/12/79 6 SN R°.idsij,ll(Walckenaer) 9/16/78 4 P Roadside E*0 ,<:i V.:!r-. (Vlllers) 8/24/79 8 SN Roads;", V5/7/78 1 SN Roadside 12/4/78 3 SN """diu/iM7/25/79 4 SN Roadside10/18/79 5 P Roadside Micryphantidae t11/18/79 7 P Roadside EpeAigone tAldzntaXa. (Emerton) 7/15/79 7 S Foreit B10/25/79 5 SN Roadside EpeAtgone macu&tfa (Banks) 612/79 6 S Form flWtlonlta. mica/Ua Emerton 7/15/79 2 SN Roadside EpeAigonc ootumnata (Emerton) 10/15/78 1 S Fore,t KHllonita. iabta (Keyserling) 7/15/79 2 SN Roadside GiammonaXa macuhUa (Banks) 11/18/79 7 S Foreit I]Gnammorurfa inoiUa (Emerton) 4/11/79 4 S Forest IMlmetiaae 10/25/79 5 S Forest IIMime-toi ¦LnteAie.ctoH Hentz 5/7/78 1 SN Roadside tlalcklnaeAa vigtfax (Blackwall) 7/15/79 S Foreit 11___^_i** Species notpublished prior to the present collection. •• 1 Donaldson 5 Fulton *** S—Sieve2 Randall 6 White Oak Lake SN—Sweep net3 Columbus 7 Garland City P—Hand picking4 Fordyce 8 El Dorado MD—Mud-dauber nests |COMSTOCK, J. H. 1948. The spider book. Comstock Pub. Co., GERTSCH, W. J. 1949. American spiders. D. Van Nostrand Co., 1Ithaca, New York. 729 p. Princeton, New Jersey. 285 p.DORRIS, P. R. 1972. Checklist of spiders collected inMississippi KASTON, B. J. and E. KASTON. 1953. How to know the spiders. Icompared with preliminary study of Arkansas spiders. Proc. William C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa. 220 p. .Ark.Acad. Sci. 26:83-86. jDORRIS, P. R. and F.BURNSIDE. 1977. Acontinuation of spider |research in Arkansas: Ouachita Mountain area. Proc. Ark.Acad. Sci. 31:114-116.PEGGY RAE DORRIS, Department ofBiology,Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas 71923.PROFILE OF HUMAN-RABID SKUNK CONTACTS INARKANSAS: 1977-1979Inrecent years, rabies has become a serious problem in the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) population of Arkansas. With 98 positive 1cases in1977, 140 in1978 and 297 in 1979, Arkansas ranks first in the number of skunk rabies per square mile. The Arkansas Department of IHealth, in1979, declared rabies instriped skunks tobe of epidemic proportion. This paper presents aprofile ofhuman contacts with rabid skunks Iover this three-year period. tfUsing information gathered from the Arkansas Department ofHealth, those individuals who had contact withlaboratory-confirmed rabid \skunks were interviewed either by questionnaire or by telephone in an effort to determine the behavior of the skunk, the habitat inwhich the skunk uwas killed, time of day of the contact and whether or notother skunks had been seen behaving ina similar manner. Response to this pollvaried Ifrom 40% in1977, 80% in1978 and 95% in1979.Table 1summarizes the behavior ofrabid skunks at the time contact was made. As can be seen, roughly half of the skunks behaved in an ag-gressive manner. Another one-third were either non-aggressive but unafraid or behaved in a sick or disoriented manner. These data agree withRichards' (1957. NorthDakota Outdoors 20:4-5, 16) observations that rabid skunks are "most aggressive and determined" than any other form ofwildlife in their attacks on humans and on other animals. Table 2indicates that most rabid skunks inthe acute state ofinfection are solitary.Table 3identifies habitats in which the skunks were killed. Over half of the skunks were killed inand around buildings inthe country. Thestriped skunk is increasingly being found inclose approximation to human habitation (Verts. 1967. The biology of the striped skunk. Univ. 111. 'Press. 218 pp.). The fact that such a large number of the rabid skunks were killed in and around buildings, further demonstrates the potentialdanger ofrabies to human and domestic animals. •Most of the rabid skunks encountered inthese three years (75%) were active during daylight hours (Table 4). To some degree, this may Jreflect human activity patterns. However, it clearly illustrates that the rabid skunk's activity often deviates drastically from the normal nocturnal 1or crepuscular pattern. jTablet. General Behavior ofRabid Skunk Table 2. Have Other Skunks Been Seen Behaving in a SimilarBEHAVIOR 1977 1978 1979 TOTAL Manner.Aggressive 12U7)1 63(60) 122(46) 197(48) 1978 1979 TOTAL jUnafraid but not aggressiveDisoriented or sick6(18) 14(13) 54(20) 74(18)11(33) 15(14) 62(23) 88(22)1(3) 4(4) 6(2) 11(3)3(9) 10(9) 25(9) 38(9)9(29) 1 28(27) 69(26) 106(26)22(71) 76(73) 199(74) 297(74)<YESNONormalDead1- Parenthesis indicate percentage1 - Parenthesis indicates percentage112Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 34 [1980], Art. 35Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1980¦Ii'fArkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol.XXXIV,1980113Table 3. Habitat Skunk Killed Table 4. Timeof Day Skunk KilledHABITAJ__ 1977 1978 lj)79 TOTAL TIME 1977 1978 1979 TOTALWoodland 3(8) ] 20(14) 51(13) 74(13) 6:00-12:00 A.M. 19(58) ] 44(42) 131(48) 194(47)Open Field or Pasture 3(8) 20(14) 68(17) 91(16) 12:00-6:00 P.M. 6(18) 29(28) 81(29) 116(28)Buildings in Country 17(71) 88(61) 199(51) 314(55) 6:00-12:00 P.M. 5(15) 15(15) 35(13) 55(14)Inside City Limits 4(10) 10(7) 29(8) 43(8) 12:00-6:00 A.M. 3(9) 15(15) 28(10) 46(11)Along Railroad 0(0) 0(0) 15(4) 15(3)Edge of Water Source 1(3) 5(4) 25(7) 31(5)1-Parenthesis indicate percentage 1 - Parenthesis indicate percentageWhile these data are based on observations made by untrained persons, we feel that they are consistent enough to draw the followingpro-file: the rabid skunk coming in contact withhumans generally willbe solitary, aggressive or unafraid and found around buildings inthe countryduring the daylight hours (usually inthe morning). Since over 85% ofskunks tested by the Arkansas Department ofHealth are positive forrabies,90% of the total cases of rabies are attributable to skunks and because of the epidemic ofskunk rabies, any skunk seen during daylight hours inArkansas should be assumed rabid and treated accordingly. Also, Parker (1962. Proc. U.S. Livestock Sanit. Assoc. 65:273-280) stated that inareaswhere rabies inskunks isprevalent, sighting a skunk during daylight hours is "reasonable grounds to suspect the animal of being infected with thedisease." The characteristics outlined herein demonstrate the effectiveness of the skunk as a perpetuator and disseminator ofrabies.DALE V.FERGUSON and GARYA.HEIDT, Dept. ofBiology,University ofArkansas atLittleRock. LittleRock, Arkansas 72204.SIGNIFICANT ADDITIONS TO THE MOLLUSCANFAUNA OF THE ILLINOISRIVER, ARKANSASInGordon et al. (1980a), the molluscan fauna of the Illinois River in northwestern Arkansas was described. Thirty-nine taxa were listed.This faunal assemblage was compared toBranson (1967), the onlyother available report on the molluscan fauna of an Ozarkian west slope drain-age, and some aspects of the local distribution of species endemic to the Interior Highlands were discussed. The distribution and identification ofendemic forms and the Arkansas unionacean fauna have been further discussed in Gordon et al. (1980b). During the past year, additional sampleswere collected from the Illinois River and west slope drainages inMissouri (tributaries of the Neosho River). Methods were previously described(Gordon et al. 1980a).Fusconaia ozarkensis (Call) and Pisidium fallax Sterki have been identified from the Illinois River. Additionally, F. ozarkensis isreportedfor the first time from Kansas (Spring River), and the Kansan records of Call (1885-1887) and Scammon (1906) are confirmed for Actinonaiasellipsiformis ellipsiformis (Conrad) (see Murray and Leonard, 1962) which appears tohave been recently misinterpreted as Villosa iris (Lea) bySchuster and DuBois (1979). Within the larger drainage systems of the west slope of the Ozark Plateaus, the unionid fauna appears to be fairlysimilar (Table 1).The Interior Highlands are composed of two separate geological assemblages whichhave been shown to possess a distinct endemic mollus-can fauna (van der Schalie and van der Schalie, 1950; Gordon et al. 1980b). Ofthe eight endemic taxa ofUnionidae, six are known to occur in theOzark Plateaus, four of these six are restricted to the Ozark Plateaus, and the other two are distributed throughout the region (Ptychobranchusoccidentalis [Conrad] and Cyprogenia aberti [Conrad]). The remaining two species, Arkansia wheeleri Ortmann and Walker and Villosa arkansas-ensis (Lea), are restricted to the Ouachita Mountains (Gordon et al. 1980b). Collections from the areas adjacent to the Illinois River have shownLampsitis reeveiana (Lea) and Actinonaias ellipsiformispleasii (Marsh) to be present inthe southern Ozarkian drainage of the White River but notthe west slope drainages represented by the Illinois,Elk, and Spring rivers. Likewise, L.rafinesqueana Frierson occurs throughout the west slopedrainages (Table 1)but notinthe White River.Fusconaia ozarkensis is common toboth the south and the west slope drainage systems.Three natural unionacean faunal subdivisions appear tobe present inthe Ozark Plateaus. The west slope fauna is typified by /¦'. ozarkensisand L. rafinesqueana. The fauna south of the Ozark Crest is composed ofF. ozarkensis, A. ellipsiformis pleasii. and L. reeveiana. North of theOzark Crest, the only endemic unionid isL.reeveiana. The overlap within these subdivisions and the presence of the two wide-spread species ill-ustrates the close affinityof the fauna.Further observations of the unionid fauna suggest some additional associations. Cyprogenia aberti is generally distributed throughout theInterior Highlands and west into Oklahoma and Kansas (Gordon et al. 1980b) and has been found throughout the Spring River system. For thesereasons, it is highlyprobable that C. aberti is present inthe IllinoisRiver, although itmay occur only downstream in Oklahoma. Similar distribu-tion patterns are reflected in the occurrence of several other species listed by Branson (1967) for the lower Spring River (see Table 1). Also,Alasmidonta marginata Say and/4, calceola (Lea)have been recorded from the Elk and Spring rivers (Table 1).They are known historically fromthe White River (Gordon et al. 1980b). Baker (1928) has noted a close distributional association between these two species of Alasmidonta. Thesmall size and habit of burrowing into the substrate byA.calceola make itdifficult to find(Utterback, 1915; Baker, 1928). Alasmidonta marginatawas found inthe Illinois River;therefore, itis postulated that A calceola also occurs inthe IllinoisRiver.tPisidium fallax generally has been considered a northern species. With exception of a single record from Alabama, it had not been foundhof the extent of maximum glaciation. Itspresence in the IllinoisRiver and several adjacent drainages represents a new regional record forspecies (Gordon et al. 1980c). These records and Wheeler's (1918) observations on the Ouachita Mountains molluscan assemblage illustrateneed for further study of the Sphaeriidae within the Interior Highlands. Pisidium fallax easily may be mistaken forP. casertanum orP.pressum. Itsdesignation as the "deceptive" (from the Latin,fallac)Pisidium appears tohave been appropriate.113Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 34 [1980], Art. 35http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol34/iss1/35

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Profile of Human-Rabid Skunk Contacts in Arkansas: 1977-1979

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