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The Alimentary Canal, Nutrition and Digestion

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IMMS’ General Textbook of Entomology

Abstract

The alimentary canal is a tube of very variable length; in some cases it is about equal to that of the body, while in others it is much longer and convoluted. The shortest and simplest type is found in many larvae, notably those of the Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera-Nematocera; in the Apterygotes, Dermaptera and certain Orthoptera this condition is maintained throughout life. In Homoptera, and larval Diptera Cyclorrhapha, it attains its greatest length and number of convolutions and is often several times longer than the whole insect. As a rule, the great length of digestive canal occurs in insects which feed on juices, rather than on the more solid tissues of animals and plants. Exceptions, however, are found in the larval Hymenoptera, whose food is entirely liquid, and whose digestive canal is a straight, simple tube. Morphologically the alimentary canal is divisible into three primary regions according to their method of embryonic origin (Fig. 93). The fore gut arises as an anterior ectodermal invagination (stomodaeum); the hind gut as a similar posterior invagination (proc-todaeum); and the mid gut, which ultimately connects the two, develops as what is probably an endodermal sac (mesenteron) (p. 339). These differences in embryonic origin result in marked histological differences in the structure of the mid gut, as compared with the other regions.

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  1. Imperial College, University of London, UK

    O. W. Richards M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. (Emeritus Professor of Zoology and Applied Entomology) & R. G. Davies M.Sc. (Reader in Entomology)

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Richards, O.W., Davies, R.G. (1977). The Alimentary Canal, Nutrition and Digestion. In: IMMS’ General Textbook of Entomology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6514-3_12

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