Geographic Range

The ellipse is found in the upper Mississippi drainage from southern Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, central Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, and eastern Iowa. It is also found in tributaries of the Missouri and Mississippi River system in the northeastern part of the Ozark plateaus in Missouri west to the Neosho River of the Arkansas River drainage.

In Michigan V. ellipsiformis is found in the Grand, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph (Lake Michigan) and Saginaw Rivers. This species is essentially absent from the Lake Erie drainage.

Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )