BIOL 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Malpighian Tubule System, Foregut, Proventriculus
10 May 2016
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Document Summary
Insects employ every kind of feeding strategy imaginable. Generally speaking, insects can be characterized as biters, suckers, or spongers. Mandibles bite and then chew with a side-to-side motion. Suckers have mouthparts that may also be modified for piercing, like those of the mosquitoes, fleas, or aphids. Some suckers do not have piercing mouthparts, but have long tube-like structures for sipping nectar. Spongers, like flies, have mouthparts for soaking up and feeding on blood, nectar, or other cellular fluids. As in the annelids, the gut shows much regional specialization. A typical arrangement might be a foregut, midgut and hindgut. The foregut would include a muscular pharynx, a distensible crop that would bulge enormously if the insect rapidly ate a large amount of food, and a proventriculus, or grinding gizzard. The midgut is called the stomach, and is the site of most enzyme production and absorption. The hindgut, or intestine, is concerned with formation of feces.
