Fig. 313.—Digestive canal of the honey-bee: A, horizontal section of the body; lp, labial palpus; mx, maxilla; e, eye; pro. t, prothorax; mesa. t, mesothorax; meta. t, metathorax; dv, dorsal vessel; v, v, ventricles of the same; No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, salivary gland systems; œ œsophagus; g, g, ganglia of chief nerve-chain; n, nerves; hs, honey-sac; p, petaloid stopper or calyx of honey-sac or stomach-mouth; c. s, chyle stomach; bt, urinary tubes; si, small intestine (ilium); l, “lamellæ or gland-plates of colon,” rectal glands; li, rectum. B, cellular layer of stomach; gc, gastric cells, × 200. C, urinary tube; bc, cells; t, trachea. D, inner layer, with gastric teeth (gt).—After Cheshire.
“Next to these in succession on each of the longitudinal ridges are four flat, broad, somewhat quadrate teeth, each of which is very finely denticulated along its free margin. These extend about half-way through the gizzard. They appear to be alternately elevated and depressed during the action of the gizzard, and to serve to carry on the food to the twelve cutting teeth, with which each ridge is also armed, and which occupy the posterior part of the organ. These teeth are triangular, sharp-pointed, and directed posteriorly, and gradually decrease in size in succession from before backward. Each tooth is very strong, sharp-pointed, and of the color and consistence of tortoise shell, and is armed on each side by a smaller pointed tooth. These form the six longitudinal ridges of the gizzard, between each two of which there are two other rows of very minute teeth of a triangular form, somewhat resembling the larger one in structure, occupying the channels between the ridges. The muscular portion of the gizzard is equally interesting. It is not merely formed of transverse and longitudinal fibres, but sends from its inner surface into the cavity of each of the large teeth other minute but powerful muscles, a pair of which are inserted into each tooth. The number of teeth in the gizzard amounts to 270, which is the same number in these Gryllidæ as found formerly by Dr. Kidd in the mole-cricket. Of the different kinds of teeth there are as follows: 72 large treble teeth, 24 flat quadrate teeth, 30 small single-hooked teeth, and 12 rows of small triangular teeth, each row being formed of 12 teeth. This is the complicated gizzard of the higher Orthoptera.” (Newport.)
In the more generalized cockroach, there are six principal folds, the so-called teeth, which project so far inwards as to nearly meet (Fig. 312). The entire apparatus of muscles and teeth is, as Miall and Denny state, “an elaborate machine for squeezing and straining the food, and recalls the gastric mill and pyloric strainer of the crayfish. The powerful annular muscles approximate the teeth and folds, closing the passage, while small longitudinal muscles, which can be traced from the chitinous teeth to the cushions, appear to retract these last, and open a passage for the food.”
As in the fore-stomach or proventriculus of the lobster, the solid, rounded teeth do not appear to triturate the solid fragments found in the organ, but act rather as a pyloric strainer to keep such bodies out of the chylific stomach. We accept the view of Plateau that this section of the digestive canal in insects, which he compares to the psalterium of a ruminant, is a strainer rather than a masticatory stomach, and both Forel and Emery, as well as Cheshire, take this view.
The proventriculus of the honey-bee (Fig. 313, hs) is called by apiarians the “honey-sac” or “honey-stomach.” Cheshire states that if it be carefully removed from a freshly killed bee, its calyx-like “stomach-mouth” may be seen to gape open and shut with a rapid snapping movement. The entrance to the stomach is guarded by four valves, each of which is strongly chitinous within, and fringed along its edge with downward-pointing fine stiff bristles. By the contraction of the longitudinal muscles (lm), the valves open to allow the passage of food from the honey-sac to the “chyle-stomach.” It is closed at will by circular muscles (tm). Then the bee can carry food for a week’s necessities, either using it rapidly in the production of wax, or eking it out if the weather is unfavorable for the gathering of a new store.
Fig. 314.—“Honey-sac stopper,” “stomach-mouth,” or calyx-bell of honey-bee, × 50. A, front view of one of the lobes of the calyx-bell; l, lip-like point, covered by down-turned bristles (b); sm, side membrane. B, longitudinal section of the stomach-mouth, with continuations into entrance of chyle-stomach; l, l, lip-like ends of leaflets; s, setæ; lm, longitudinal muscles; tm, transverse muscles in cross-section; cl, cell-layer of honey-sac; LM, TM, longitudinal and transverse muscles of same; nc, nucleated cells of tubular extension of stomach-mouth into chyle-stomach; lm′, tm′, longitudinal and transverse muscles of chyle stomach; c, c, cells covered within by an intima. C, cross-section of stomach-mouth; m, cross-section of muscles seen at lm in B; tm, transverse muscles surrounding stomach-mouth. D, cross-section through small intestine; a and m, longitudinal and surrounding muscles.—After Cheshire.
Cheshire also shows that when bees suck up from composite and other flowers nectar together with much pollen, the outside wrinkled membrane (sm, A, Fig. 314) “is seen to continually run up in folds, and gather itself over the top of the stomach-mouth, bringing with it, by the aid of its setæ, the large pollen-grains the nectar contains.” The lips (l, l, B, Fig. 314), now opening, take in this pollen, which is driven forwards into the cavity made between the separating lips by an inflow of the fluid surrounding the granules. The lips in turn close, but the down-pointing bristles are thrown outwards from the face of the leaflet, in this way revealing their special function, as the pollen is prevented from receding while the nectar passes back into the honey-sac, strained through between the bristles aforesaid, the last parts escaping by the loop-like openings seen in the corners of C, Fig. 314. The whole process is immediately and very rapidly repeated, so that the pollen collects and the honey is cleared. “Three purposes, in addition to those previously enumerated, are thus subserved by this wondrous mechanism. First, the bee can either eat or drink from the mixed diet she carries, gulping down the pollen in pellets, or swallowing the nectar as her necessities demand. Second, when the collected pollen is driven forwards into the chyle-stomach, the tube extension, whose necessity now becomes apparent, prevents the pellets forming into plug-like masses just below p, Fig. 313, for, by the action of the tube, these pellets are delivered into the midst of the fluids of the stomach, to be at once broken up and subjected to the digestive process. And third, while the little gatherer is flying from flower to flower, her stomach-mouth is busy in separating pollen from nectar, so that the latter may be less liable to fermentation and better suited to winter consumption. She, in fact, carries with her, and at once puts into operation, the most ancient, and yet the most perfect and beautiful, of all ‘honey-strainers.’”
Forel’s experiments on the proventriculus of ants prove that through its valvular contrivance it closes the passage from the crop to the mid-intestine (“chylific stomach”), and allows the contents of the former to pass slowly and very gradually into the latter. Emery confirms this view, and concludes that the organ in the Camponotidæ and in the Dolichoderidæ provided with a calyx-bell, usually regarded as a triturating stomach (Kaumagen), but more correctly as a pumping stomach, consists of parts which perform two different functions. Under the operation of the muscles of the crop the entrance to the pumping stomach becomes closed, in order by such spasmodic contraction to prevent the flow of the contents of the crop into the proventriculus. By the pressure of the transverse muscles of the proventriculus its contents are emptied into the mid-intestine, while simultaneously a regurgitation into the crop is prevented. In the Dolichoderidæ and Plagiolepidinæ the closure in both cases is effected by the valves. In the true Camponotidæ there are two separate contrivances for closing; the calyx belonging to the crop-musculature, while the valves essentially belong to the proventricular pumping apparatus.
Opinions vary as to the use of this portion of the digestive canal. Graber compares it to the gizzard of birds, and likens the action of the rosette of teeth to the finer radiating teeth of the sea-urchin, and styles it a chopping machine, which works automatically, and allows no solid bits of food to pass in to injure the delicate walls of the stomach (mid-gut).
He also states that the food when taken from the proventriculus is very finely divided, while that found in the œsophagus contains large bits.
Kolbe says that this view has recently been completely abandoned, and that the teeth are used to pass the food backwards into the chylific stomach. “But Goldfuss had denied the triturating action of the proventriculus of the Orthoptera (Symbolæ ad Orthopterorum quorundam Œconomiam, 1843), stating that the contents of the same are already fluid in the gullet, so that the fore-stomach (Kaumagen) does not need to comminute the food” (Kolbe). In the Gryllidæ and Locustidæ, just before the posterior opening of the proventriculus into the stomach the chitinous lining swells into a ring and projects straight back as the inner wall of the cylindrical chylific stomach. The muscular layer forms two sac-like outgrowths or folds, which separate on the circular fold from the chitinous membrane. This apparatus only allows very finely comminuted food to pass into the stomach.
In the Acrydiidæ (Eremobia muricata) at the end of the proventriculus, where it passes into the stomach, is a small circular fold which hangs down like a curtain in the stomach.
The œsophageal valve.—Weismann[50] states that the origin of the proventriculus in the embryo of flies (Muscidæ) shows that it should be regarded as an intussusception of the œsophagus. While in the embryo the invaginated portion of the œsophagus is short, after the hatching of the larva it projects backwards into the mid-intestine. Kowalevsky also observed in a young muscid larva, 2.2 mm. in length, that the œsophagus, shaped like a tube, extends back into the expanded portion (proventriculus) and opens into the stomach (Fig. 315, A). In a larva 10 mm. long the funnel is shorter, the end being situated in the proventriculus (Fig. 315, B, pr). In the cavity between the outer (o) and inner wall (i) no food enters, and the use of this whole apparatus seems to be to prevent the larger bits of food from passing into the chylific stomach (Kowalevsky).
Fig. 315.—Œsophageal valve of young muscid larva: m, its opening: t, thickening of the cells; mes, mesoderm.—After Kowalevsky.
Beauregard has found a similar structure in the Meloidæ, and calls it the “cardiac valvule” (Fig. 318, Kl). It was observed by Mingazzini in the larvæ of phytophagic lamellicorn beetles, and Balbiani described it in a myriopod (Cryptops) under the name of the “œsophageal valvule.”
Gehuchten describes a homologous but more complicated structure in a tipulid larva (Ptychoptera contaminata), but differing in containing blood-cavities, as a tubular prolongation of the posterior end of the œsophagus which passes through the proventriculus and opens at various positions in the anterior part of the chylific stomach (Fig. 316).
The three layers composing this funnel are distant from each other and separated by blood-cavities, the whole forming “an immense blood-cavity extended between the epithelial proventricular lining and the muscular coat.”
According to Schneider the longitudinal muscular fibres of the fore and hind gut in insects pass into the stomach (mid-gut). The anterior part of the fore-gut has generally only circular fibres. When, however, the longitudinal fibres arise behind the middle, then they separate from the digestive canal and are inserted a little behind the beginning of the chylific stomach. Hence there is formed an invagination of the proventriculus, which projects into the cavity of the stomach.
Schneider describes this process, which he calls the “beak,” as an invagination of the fore-stomach which projects into the cavity of the stomach. The two layers of the invagination in growing together form a beak varying in shape, being either simple or lobed and armed with bristles or teeth. This beak is tolerably large in Lepisma, Dermaptera (Forficula), Orthoptera, and in the larvæ and adults of Diptera, but smaller in the Neuroptera and Coleoptera, while in other insects it is wanting.
Proventricular valvule.—Gehuchten also describes in Ptychoptera what he calls “the proventricular valvule,” stating that it is “a circular fold of the intestinal wall” (Fig. 310, vpr). He claims that it has not before been found, the “proventricular beak” of Schneider being regarded by him as the œsophageal valvule.
Fig. 316.—Digestive canal of Ptychoptera contaminata: gs, salivary glands; ra, œsophagus; pr, proventriculus; gt, crown of eight small tubular glands; im, mid-intestine; ga, two accessory white glands; vm, urinary vessels; ig, small intestine; gi, large intestine; r, rectum; A, the proventriculus in which the hinder end of the œsophagus extends as far as the chyle-stomach. B, longitudinal section of the proventricular region; sph, muscular ring or œsophageal sphincter; ppr, wall of the proventriculus; e, circular constriction dividing the cavity of the proventriculus in two; vpr, circular fold of the wall of the mid-intestine forming the proventricular valve; vœ, œsophageal valve.—After Gehuchten.
The peritrophic membrane.—This membrane appears first to have been noticed by Ramdohr in 1811 in Hemerobius perla. It has been found by Schneider, who calls it the “funnel.” On the hinder end of the fore-stomach, he says, the cuticula forms a fold enclosing the outlet of the fore-stomach, and extending back like a tube to the anus. This “funnel,” he adds, occurs in a great number of insects. It has been found in Thysanura, but is wanting in Hemiptera. In the Coleoptera it is absent in Carabidæ and Dyticidæ. It is generally present in Diptera and in the larvæ of Lepidoptera, but not in the adults. In Hymenoptera it has been found in ants and wasps, but is absent in Cynipidæ, Ichneumonidæ, and Tenthredinidæ. All those insects (including their larvæ) possessing this funnel eat solid, indigestible food, while those which do not possess it take fluid nourishment. It is elastic, and firmly encloses the contents of the digestive tract. Until Schneider’s discovery of its general occurrence, it had only been known to exist in the viviparous Cecidomyia larvæ (Miastor). Wagner, its discoverer, noticed in the stomach of this insect a second tube which contained food. Pagenstecher was inclined to regard the tube as a secretion of the salivary glands. Metschnikoff, however, more correctly stated that the tube consisted of chitin, but he regarded it as adapted for the removal of the secretions. (Schneider.) Plateau, however, as well as Balbiani, the latter calling it the “peritropic membrane,” considers this membrane as a secretion of the chylific stomach, and that it is formed at the surface of the epithelial cells. It surrounds the food along the entire digestive tract, forming an envelope around the fæcal masses. On the other hand, Gehuchten states that in the larva of Ptychoptera its mode of origin differs from that described by Plateau and by Schneider, and that it is a product of secretion of special cells in the proventriculus.
The mid-intestine.—This section of the digestive canal, often, though erroneously, called the “chylific stomach” or ventriculus, differs not only in its embryonic history, but also in its structure and physiology from the fore and hind intestine of arthropods, and also presents no analogy to the stomach of the vertebrate animals. In insects it is a simple tube, not usually lined with chitin, since it is not formed by the invagination of the ectoderm, as are the fore and hind intestine, the absence of the chitinous intima promoting the absorption of soluble food. Into the anterior end either open two or more large cœcal tubes (Fig. 299), or its whole outer surface is beset with very numerous fine glandular filaments like villi (Fig. 317 and Fig. 329).
The mid-intestine varies much in size and shape; it is very long in the lamellicorn beetles (Melolontha and Geotrupes), and while in Meloë it is very large, occupying the greatest part of the body-cavity, in the longicorn beetles and in Lepidoptera it is very small. The pyloric end consists of an internal circular fold projecting into the cavity. In the Psocidæ (Cæcilius) the pyloric end is prolonged into a slender tube nearly as long as the larger anterior portion.
The limits between the mid and hind intestine are in some insects difficult to define, the urinary tubes sometimes appearing to open into the end of the mid-intestine (“stomach”). The latter also is sometimes lined with an intima. The limits are also determined by a circular projection, directly behind which is an enlargement of the intestine in the shape of a trench (rigole), or circular cul-de-sac (the “pyloric valvule” of some authors, including Beauregard), while the walls of the small intestine contract so as to produce a considerable constriction of the cavity of the canal. This constriction exactly coincides with the beginning of the double layer of circular muscles in the wall of the small intestine. An internal layer, which is the continuation of the circular muscles of the chylific stomach, and an external layer much more developed probably belong to this part of the alimentary canal. Since the homologue of the circular fold occurs in the locust as well as in Diptera, it is probably common to insects in general.
Fig. 317.—Digestive canal of Carabus monilis: h, œsophagus; i, gizzard or proventriculus; k, “stomach,” with its cœca (r); p, urinary tubes; q, their point of insertion; m, n, colon, with cœcal glands; s, anal glands; a, b, c, a gastric cœcum; a, b, portion of lining of gizzard.—After Newport.
Fig. 318.—Digestive canal of Meloe: sch, œsophagus; Kl, œsophageal valve; mD, mid-intestine; eD, hind-intestine; Ei, eggs; g, sexual opening.—After Graber.
Gehuchten adds that the limit set by the circular projection does not exactly coincide with the opening into the intestine of the urinary tubes and the two annexed glands. He shows by a section (his Fig. 133) that the tubular glands open into the alimentary canal in front of the circular fold. It is the same with the Malpighian tubes. They are not, therefore, he claims, dependences of the terminal intestine, but of the mid-intestine. Beauregard has observed the same thing in the vesicating insects (Meloidæ). The Malpighian tubes, he says, open into the “chylific stomach” before the valvular crown. This arrangement does not seem to be general, because, according to Balbiani, the Malpighian vessels open into the beginning of the intestine in Cryptops. Compare also Minot’s account of the valve in locusts separating the stomach from the intestine, and in front of which the urinary or Malpighian tubes open.
Histology of the mid-intestine.—The walls of the stomach are composed of an internal epithelium, a layer of connective tissue, with two muscular layers, the inner of which is formed of unstriated circular muscular fibres, and the outer of striated longitudinal muscular fibres.
In the cockroach short processes are given off from the free ends of the epithelial cells, as in the intestine of many mammals and other animals. “Between the cells a reticulum is often to be seen, especially where the cells have burst; it extends between and among all the elements of the mucous lining, and probably serves, like the very similar structure met with in mammalian intestines, to absorb and conduct some of the products of digestion.” (Miall and Denny.)
Gehuchten shows that the epithelial lining of the mesenteron (chylific stomach) of the dipterous larva Ptychoptera is composed of two kinds of cells, i.e. secreting or glandular cells and absorbent cells, the former situated at each end of the stomach, and the absorbent cells occupying the middle region. The part played by these cells in digestion will be treated of beyond in the section on digestion. (See p. 327.)
The hind-intestine.—In many insects this is divided into the ileum, or short intestine, and the long intestine. The limit between the intestine and stomach is externally determined by the origin of the urinary tubes, which are outgrowths of the anterior end of the proctodæum. Like the fore-intestine the hind-intestine is lined with a thick muscular layer, and, as Gehuchten states, the passage from the epithelial lining of the stomach (mid-intestine) to the muscular lining of the intestine is abrupt.
Large intestine.—In Ptychoptera, as described by Gehuchten, there are no precise limits between the small and large intestine; the epithelium of the large intestine has a special character, and its constituents present a close resemblance to the absorbed cells of the chylific stomach, being like them large and polygonal. The muscular layer is not continuous, and is formed of longitudinal and circular fibres, the latter being the larger.
The ileum—Though in most insects slender, and therefore called the small intestine, the ileum is in locusts (Fig. 298) and grasshoppers (Anabrus, Fig. 299) as thick as the stomach. In many carnivorous beetles (Dyticus, Fig. 320, il, and Necrophorus) it is very long, but rather slender and short in the Carabidæ and Cicindelidæ, as well as those insects whose food is liquid, such as Diptera. In the Lepidoptera it varies in length, being in Sphinx quite long and bent into seven folds (Fig. 309), while it is very short in the Psocidæ, Chrysomelidæ, and Tenthredinidæ.
In the locust the ileum is traversed by six longitudinal folds with intervening furrows; outside of each furrow is a longitudinal muscular band. Seen from the inner surface the epithelium has an unusual character, the cells in the middle of each of the flat folds being quite large, polygonal in outline, while towards the furrows the cells become very much smaller. The walls are double when seen in transverse section, the inner layer consisting of epithelial cells resting on connective tissue, the outer layer formed of circular muscles. The cuticula is thin, but probably chitinous; it resembles that on the gastro-ileal folds, except that there are no spinules, but unlike the cuticula of the stomach it extends equally over the folds and the furrows. (Minot.) In the cockroach the junction of the small intestine with the colon is abrupt, a well-developed annular fold assuming the nature of a circular valve. (Miall and Denny.)
The gastro-ileal folds.—In the locust the intestine is separated from the chylific stomach by what Minot calls “the gastro-ileal folds,” which form a peculiar valve. The urinary vessels open just underneath and in front of this valve. In Melanoplus, and probably in the entire family of Acrydiidæ, they are indicated as “dark spots, round in front and lying at the anterior end of the ileum so as to form a ring around the interior of the intestine.” They are 12 in number, and all alike. They are pigmented and round in front where they are broadest and stand up highest; they narrow down backwards, the pigment disappears, and they gradually fade out into the ileal folds. Directly beneath them, and just at the posterior end of the stomach, there is a strong band of circular striated muscular fibres. The epithelium of these folds is covered with minute conical spines, which are generally, but not always, wanting between the folds. (Minot.)
The colon.—This section of the intestine (Fig. 319) is sometimes regarded as a part of the rectum. In the locust the six longitudinal folds of the ileum are continued into the colon, but their surface, instead of being smooth as in the ileum, is thrown up into numerous irregular curved and zigzag secondary folds. The cells of the epithelium are of uniform size, and the layer is covered by a highly refringent cuticula without spines; and, like that in the ileum, it rests on a layer of connective tissue, beyond which follows (1) an internal coat of longitudinal, and (2) an external coat of circular striated muscular fibres. (Minot.)
Fig. 319.—Digestive canal of Lucanus cervus: G, anterior muscles of the pharynx; H, œsophagus; I, gizzard; K, chyle-stomach; L, ilium; M, colon (cœcal part of); N, colon; O, rectum; a, frontal ganglion of the vagus; b, vagus nerve; c, anterior lateral ganglion connected with the vagus.—After Newport.
In butterflies (Pontia brassicæ), in Sphinx ligustri, and probably in most Lepidoptera the colon is distinct from the rectum, and is anteriorly developed into a very large more or less pyriform or bladder-like cæcum (Figs. 309, 310), which in certain Coleoptera (Dyticus, Fig. 320, d; Silpha, Necrophorus, etc.) is of remarkable length and shape; it also occurs in Nepidæ (Fig. 327). In the cockroach a lateral cæcum “is occasionally, but not constantly, present towards its rectal end,” and a constriction divides the colon from the rectum. (Miall and Denny.)
The rectum.—The terminal section of the hind-gut varies in length and size, but is usually larger than the colon, and with thick, muscular walls. In Lepidoptera it is narrow and short.
The rectum is remarkable for containing structures called rectal glands (Fig. 298). Chun describes those of Locusta viridissima as six flat folds, formed by a high columnar epithelium and a distinct cuticula; there is a coat of circular bands corresponding to the furrows between the glands. Minot states that this description is applicable to the locusts (Acrydiidæ) he has investigated, the only difference being in the structural details of the single layers. He claims that the rectal folds “do not offer the least appearance of glandular structure,” neither is their function an absorbent one, as Chun supposed. From their structure and position Fernald regards the rectal glands of Passalus as acting like a valve, serving to retain the food in the absorptive portions of the digestive tract till all nutriment is extracted.
Fig. 320.—Dyticus marginalis, ♂ opened from the back: a, crop; b, proventriculus; c, mid-intestine beset with fine cœcal glands; d, long cœcal appendage of the colon; apodemes; B1-B3, apodemes; vhm, coxal extensor muscle, moving the hind leg; ho, testis; dr, accessory gland; r, penis; e, reservoir of the secretion of the anal gland.—After Graber.
The epithelial folds of the larvæ of dragon-flies serve as organs of respiration, the water being admitted into this cavity, and when forcibly expelled serving to propel the creature forward. Paired and single anal glands (repugnatorial) enter the rectum of certain Coleoptera (Figs. 302, l; 317, s; 320, e).
The vent (anus).—The external opening of the rectum is situated in the end of the body, in the vestigial 10th or 11th abdominal segment, and is more or less eversible. It is protected above in caterpillars, and other insects with 10 free abdominal segments, by the suranal plate. It is bounded on the sides by the paranal lobes, while beneath is the infra-anal lobe.
The anus is wanting in certain insects, and where this is the case the hind-gut, owing to a retention of the embryonic condition, is usually separated from the mid-intestine. (See p. 300.)
Fig. 321.—Enteric canal of Psyllopsis fraxinicola: œ, œsophagus; md, mid-intestine; ed, hind-intestine; vm, urinary vessels; s, the coil formed by the hind-intestine and the most anterior part of the mid-intestine.—After Witlaczil, from Lang.
Some remarkable features of the digestive canal in hemipterous insects are noteworthy. In the Coccidæ, according to Mark, the anterior end of the long mid-intestine forms, with the hinder end of the œsophagus, a small loop, whose posterior end is firmly grown to the wall of the rectum, and forms a cup-like invagination of the latter. Then the rest of the tube-like stomach turns sidewise and forms a large loop, which turns back on itself and occupies a large part of the body-cavity. This loop receives on the anterior end, near the œsophagus, the two urinary vessels, and forms just below the opening into the rectum a short cæcum.
In other homopterous genera (Psyllidæ and some Cicadidæ) Witlaczil describes nearly the same peculiarity, the mid-gut and part of the intestine forming a loop growing together for a certain distance and winding round each other (Fig. 321).
Histology of the digestive canal.—In all the divisions of the digestive canal of insects the succession of the cellular layers composing it is the same: 1st, a cuticula; 2d, an epithelium; 3d, connective tissue; 4th, muscular tissue. In the locust, the first division of the canal (fore-gut), there are two muscular coats, an internal longitudinal and an external circular coat; the fibres are all striated. The lining epithelium is not much developed, but forms a thick, hard, and refringent cuticula, which is thrown up into spiny ridges. In the second division (mid-gut, “stomach”) the epithelium is composed of very high columnar cells, which make up the greater part of the thickness of the walls, while the cuticula is very delicate, slightly refringent, with no ridges, and is probably not chitinous; the fibres of the muscular coats are not striated, while this division is also distinguished by the presence of glandular follicles and folds. The stomach and the cæcal appendages have all these peculiarities in common, while no other part of the canal is thus characterized.
The third division (intestine and rectum) is composed of an epithelium, the cells of which are intermediate in size between those of the fore and mid gut. The cells are often pigmented, and they are covered by a much thicker cuticula than that of the stomach, but which is not so thick and hard as that of the œsophagus and proventriculus. The very refringent cuticula is not thrown up into ridges, though in some parts it is covered with delicate conical spines, which are very short. “The epithelium and underlying connective tissue (tunica propria) are thrown up into six folds, which run longitudinally, being regular in the ileum and rectum (as the rectal glands), but very irregular in the colon. Outside the depression between each two neighboring folds there is a longitudinal muscular band, these making six bands. This peculiar disposition of the longitudinal muscles does not occur in any other part of the canal; it is, therefore, especially characteristic of the third division.” (Minot.)
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—— Recherches anatomiques sur l’Hippobosque des chevaux. (Ann. Sc. nat., 1825, vi, pp. 299–322, 1 Pl.)
—— Description et figure de l’appareil digestif de l’Anobium striatum. (Ibid., xiv, 1828, pp. 219–222, 1 Pl.)
—— Recherches anatomiques sur les Labidoures. Appareil de la digestion. (Ibid., xiii, 1828, pp. 348–354, 2 Pls.)
—— Recherches anatomiques et considerations entomologiques sur quelques insectes Coléoptères, compris dans les familles des Dermestins, des Byrrhiens, des Acanthopodes et des Leptodactyles. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 2, Zool., i, 1834, pp. 67–76, 2 Pls.)
—— Résumé des recherches anatomiques et physiologiques sur les Hémiptères. (Ibid., pp. 232–239.)
—— Mémoire sur les métamorphoses et l’anatomie de la Pyrochroa coccinea. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 2, Zool., xiii, 1840, pp. 328–330, 334–337, 2 Pls.)
—— Histoire comparative des metamorphoses et de l’anatomie des Cetonia aurata et Dorcus parallelepipedus. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 2, Zool., 1824, xviii, pp. 174–176, 2 Pls.)
—— Anatomie générale des Diptères. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 3, Zool., i, 1814, pp. 248, 249.)
—— Histoire des métamorphoses et de l’anatomie du Piophila petasionis. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 3, Zool., i, 1844, pp. 372–377, 1 Pl.)
—— Études anatomiques et physiologiques sur les insectes Diptères de la famille des Pupipares. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 3, Zool., iii, 1845, pp. 67–73, 1 Pl.)
—— Recherches sur l’anatomie et l’histoire naturelle de l’Osmylus maculatus. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 3, Zool., ix, 1848, pp. 346–349, 1 Pl.)
—— Études anatomiques et physiologiques, et observations sur les larves des Libellules. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 3, Zool., xvii, 1852, pp. 101–108, 1 Pl.)
—— Recherches anatomiques sur les Hyménoptères de la famille des Urocerates. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 4, Zool., i, 1854, pp. 212–216, 1 Pl.)
—— Fragments d’anatomie entomologique. Sur l’appareil digestif du Nemoptera lusitanica. (Ibid., Sér. 4, viii, 1857, pp. 6–9, 1 Pl.)
—— Recherches anatomique et considerations entomologiques sur les Hémiptères du genre Leptopus. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 4, Zool., 1858, x, pp. 352–356, 1 Pl.)
—— Recherches anatomiques sur l’Ascalaphus meridionalis. Appareil digestif. (Ibid., Sér. 4, xiii, 1860, pp. 200–202, 1 Pl.)
Leydig, F. Zur Anatomie von Coccus hesperidum. (Zeitschr. f. wissens. Zool., v, 1853, pp. 1–12, 1 Taf.)
Lubbock, J. On the digestive and nervous System of Coccus hesperidum. (Proc. Roy. Soc., ix, 1886, pp. 480–486; also Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1859, Ser. 3, iii, pp. 306–311.)
Scheiber, S. H. Vergleichende Anatomie und Physiologie der Œstriden-Larven. V. Das chylo- und uropœtische System. (Sitzber. d. k. Akad. d. Wissens. Wien. Math.-naturwiss. Cl., 1862, xlv, pp. 39–64, 1 Taf.)
Gerstaecker, A. Bronn’s Klassen und Ordnungen des Tierreichs. V. Gliederfüssler. (Ernährungsorgane, pp. 87–105.)
Graber, V. Zur naheren Kenntnis des Proventriculus und der Appendices ventriculares bei den Grillen und Laubheuschrecken. (Sitzber. d. k. Akad. d. Wissensch. Wien. Mathem.-naturwiss. Cl., lix, 1869, pp. 29–46, 3 Taf.)
—— Ueber die Ernährungsorgane der Insekten und nächstverwandten Gliederfüssler. (Mitteil. d. naturwiss. Vereins für Steiermark. Graz, 1871, ii, pp. 181, 182.)
—— Verdauungssystem des Prachtkäfers. (Ibid., Graz, 1875.)
—— Die Insekten., i, 1877. (Verdauungsapparat, pp. 308–328.)
Wilde, K. F. Untersuchungen über den Kaumagen der Orthopteren. (Archiv f. Naturgesch., xliii Jahrg., 1877, pp. 135–172, 3 Taf.)
Simroth, H. Ueber den Darmkanal der Larven von Osmoderma eremita mit seinen Anhängen. (Giebel’s Zeitschr. f. d. ges. Naturwiss., 1878, li, pp. 493–518, 3 Taf.)
Müller, H. Ueber die angebliche Afterlösigkeit der Bienenlarven. (Zool. Anzeiger, 1881, pp. 530, 531.)
Schiemenz, Paulus. Ueber das Herkommen des Futtersaftes und die Speicheldrüsen der Bienen, nebst einem Anhänge über das Riechorgan. (Zeitschr. f. wissens. Zool., xxxviii, 1883, pp. 71–135, 3 Taf.)
Rovelli, G. Alcune ricerche sul tubo digerente degli Atteri, Ortotteri e Pseudo-Neurotteri. (Como, 1884, p. 15.)
Beauregard, H. Structure de l’appareil digestif des Insectes de la tribu des Vésicants. (Compt. rend. Acad. Paris, 1884, xcix, pp. 1083–1086.)
—— Recherches sur les Insectes vésicants., 1 Part, Anatomie. (Journ. Anat. Phys. Paris, 1885, xxi Année, pp. 483–524, 4 Pls.; 1886, xxii Année, pp. 85–108, 242–284, 5 Pls.)
—— Les Insectes vésicants, Paris, 1890, Chap. III, Appareil digestif, pp. 63–99; (Phénomènes digestifs, pp. 161–170; Pls. 6–9.)
Wertheimer, L. Sur la structure du tube digestif de l’Oryctes nasicornis. (Compt. rend. Soc. Biol. Paris, 1887, Sér. 8, iv, pp. 531, 532.)
Kowalevsky, A. Beitrage zur Kenntniss der nachembryonal Entwicklung der Musciden. (Zeitschr. f. wissens. Zool., xlv, 1887, pp. 542–594, 5 Taf.)
Schneider, A. Ueber den Darm der Arthropoden, besonders der Insekten. (Zool. Anzeiger, 1887, x Jahrg., pp. 139, 140.)
—— Ueber den Darmkanal der Arthropoden. (Zool. Beiträge von A. Schneider, ii, 1887, pp. 82–96, 3 Taf.)
Fritze, A. Ueber den Darmkanal der Ephemeriden. (Berichte der Naturforsch.-Gesellsch. zu Freiburg i. Br., 1888, iv, pp. 59–82, 2 Taf.)
Emery, C. Ueber den sogenannten Kaumagen einiger Ameisen. (Zeitschr. f. wissens. Zool., 1888, xlvi, pp. 378–412, 3 Taf.)
Meinert, F. Contribution à l’anatomie des Fourmilions. (Overs. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Forhandl. Kjöbenhavn, 1889, pp. 43–66, 2 Pls.)
Mingazzini, P. Richerche sul canale digerente dei Lamellicorni fitofage (Larve e Insetti perfetti). (Mitteil. Zool. Station zu Neapel, ix, 1889–1891, pp. 1–112, 266–304, 7 Pls.)
Fernald, Henry T. Rectal glands in Coleoptera. (Amer. Naturalist, xxiv, pp. 100, 101, Jan., 1890.)
Visart, O. Digestive canal of Orthoptera. (Atti Soc. Toscana Scient. Natur., vii, 1891, pp. 277–285.)
Eberli, J. Untersuchungen an Verdauungstrakten von Gryllotalpa vulgaris. (Vierteljahresschr. d. Naturforsch. Gesells. Zurich, 1892, Sep., p. 46, Fig.)
Holmgren, Emil. Histologiska studier öfver några lepidopterlarvers digestionskanal och en del af deras Körtelartade bildningar. (Ent. Tidskr. Årg. xiii, pp. 129–170, 1892, 6 Pls.)
Ris, F. Untersuchung über die Gestalt des Kaumagens bei den Libellen und ihren Larven. (Zool. Jahrb. Abth. Syst., ix, 1896, pp. 596–624, 13 Figs.)
See also the works of Straus-Dürckheim, Newport, Mark, Witlaczil, Vayssière, Landois, Jordan, Oudemans, Berlese, List, Grassi, Verson, Miall and Denny, Leidy, Cheshire, Kowalevsky, Gehuchten, Locy, etc.
For the most complete and reliable investigation of the process of digestion, we are indebted to Plateau, whose results we give, besides the conclusions of later authors:
In mandibulate or biting insects, the food is conducted through the œsophagus by means of the muscular coating of this part of the digestive canal. Suctorial insects draw in their liquid food by the contractions followed by the dilatations of the mid-intestine (chylific stomach). Dragon-flies, Orthoptera, and Lepidoptera swallow some air with their food.
Where the salivary glands are present, the neutral alkaline fluid secreted by them has the same property as the salivary fluid of vertebrates of rapidly transforming starchy foods into soluble and assimilable glucose. In such forms as have no salivary glands, their place is almost always supplied by an epithelial lining of the œsophagus, or, as in the Hydrophilidæ, a fluid is secreted which has the same function as the true salivary fluid.
Nagel states that the saliva of the larva of Dyticus is powerfully digestive, and has a marked poisonous action, killing other insects, and even tadpoles of twice the size of the attacking larva, very rapidly. The larvæ not only suck the blood of their victims, but absorb the proteid substances. Drops of salivary juice seem to paralyze the victim, and to ferment the proteids. The secretion is neutral, the digestion tryptic. Similar extra-oral digestion seems to occur in larvæ of ant-lions, etc. (Biol. Centralbl., xvi, 1896, pp. 51–57, 103–112; Journ. Roy. Micr. Soc., 1896, p. 184.)
In carnivorous insects and in Orthoptera, the œsophagus dilates into a crop (ingluvies) ended by a narrow, valvular apparatus (or gizzard of authors). The food, more or less divided by the jaws, accumulates in the crop, which is very distensible; and, when the food is penetrated by the neutral or alkaline liquid, there undergoes an evident digestive action resulting, in carnivorous insects, in the transformation of albuminoid substances into soluble and assimilable matter analogous to peptones, and, in herbivorous insects, an abundant production of sugar from starch. This digestion in the crop, a food-reservoir, is very slow, and, until it is ended, the rest of the digestive canal remains empty.
“Any decided acidity found in the crop is due to the injection of acid food; but a very faint acidity may occur, which results from the presence in the crop of a fluid secreted by the cæcal diverticula of the mesenteron.” (Miall and Denny.)
When digestion in the crop is accomplished, the matters are subjected to an energetic pressure of the walls through peristaltic contractions, and then, guided by the furrows and chitinous teeth, pass along or gradually filter through the valvular apparatus or proventriculus, whose function is that of a strainer.
At the beginning of the “chyle-stomach” (mesenteron) of Orthoptera are glandular cæca which secrete a feebly acid fluid. This fluid emulsifies fats, and converts albuminoids into peptones. It passes forwards into the crop, and there acts upon the food.
In the mesenteron (mid-intestine) the food is acted upon by an alkaline or neutral fluid, never acid, either secreted, as in Orthoptera, by local special glands, or by a multitude of minute glandular cæca, as in many Coleoptera, or by a simple epithelial layer. It has no analogy with the gastric juices of vertebrates; its function differs in insects of different groups; in carnivorous Coleoptera it actively emulsionizes greasy matters; in the Hydrophilidæ it continues the process of transformation of starch into glucose, begun in the œsophagus. In the Scarabæidæ, it also produces glucose, but this action is local, not occurring elsewhere; in caterpillars, it causes a production of glucose, and transforms the albuminoids into soluble and assimilable bodies analogous to peptones, and also emulsionizes greasy matters. Finally, in the herbivorous Orthoptera there does not seem to be any formation of sugar in the stomach itself, the production of glucose being confined to the crop (jabot).
When digestion in the crop is finished, the proventriculus relaxes, and the contents of the crop, now in a semi-fluid condition, guided by the furrows and teeth, passes into the mesenteron, which is without a chitinous lining, and is thus fitted for absorption.
The contents of the mid-intestine (chylific stomach) then slowly and gradually pass into the intestine, the first anterior portion of which, usually long and slender, is the seat of an active absorption. The epithelial lining observed in certain insects seems, however, to indicate that secondary digestion takes place in this section. The reaction of the contents is neutral or alkaline.
The second and larger division of the intestine only acts as a stercoral reservoir. (The voluminous cæcum occurring in Dyticidæ, Nepa, and Ranatra, whether full or empty, never contains gas, and it is not, as some have supposed, a swimming-bladder.) The liquid product secreted by the Malpighian tubes accumulates in this division, and, under certain circumstances, very large calculi are often formed. In his subsequent paper on the digestion of the cockroach, Plateau states that in the intestine are united the residue of the work of digestion and the secretion of the urinary or Malpighian tubes, this secretion being purely urinary.
These organs are exclusively depuratory and urinary, freeing the body from waste products of the organic elements. The liquid they secrete contains urea (?), uric acid and abundant urates, hippuric acid (?), chloride of sodium, phosphates, carbonate of lime, oxalate of lime in quantity, leucine, and coloring-matters.
The products of the rectal or anal glands vary much in different groups, but they take no part in digestion, nor are they depuratory in their nature.
Insects have nothing resembling chylific substances.[51] The products of digestion, dissolved salts, peptones, sugar in solution, emulsionized greasy matters, pass through the relatively delicate walls of the digestive canal by osmose, and mingle outside of the canal with the blood.
Whatever substances remain undigested are expelled with the excrements; such are the chitin of the integuments of insects, vegetable cellulose, and chlorophyll, which is detected by the microspectroscope all along the digestive canal of phytophagous insects.
In his experiments in feeding the larvæ of Musca with lacmus, Kowalevsky found that the œsophagus, food-reservoir, and proventriculus, with its cæcal appendages, always remained blue, and had an alkaline reaction; the mid-intestine, also, in its anterior portion, remained blue, but a portion of its posterior half became deep red, and also exhibited a strong reaction. The hind-intestine, however, always remained blue, and also had an alkaline reaction. (Biol. Centralbl., ix, 1889, p. 46.)
The mechanism of secretion.—Gehuchten describes the process of secretion in insects, the following extract being taken from his researches on the digestive apparatus of the larva of Ptychoptera. The products of secretion poured into the alimentary canal are more or less fluid; for this reason, it is impossible to say when an epithelial cell at rest contains these products. For the secreting nature of these cells is only apparent at the moment when they are ready for excretion; then the cellular membrane swells out, and a part of the protoplasmic body projects into the intestinal cavity.
Before going farther, the terms secretion and excretion should, he says, be defined. With Ranvier, he believes that the elaboration in the protoplasm of a definite fluid substance is, par excellence, the secretory act, while the removal of this substance is the act of excretion.