Internal Anatomy of  the Grasshopper

 

Digestive System

            Position your grasshopper dorsal side upward and cut along the dorsal surface of the thorax and abdomen and pull the exoskeleton aside.  Be sure to keep your scissors close to the body wall to avoid damage to the internal structures.  The digestive system fills most of the internal cavity of the grasshopper (except in mature females which may be filled with eggs).  A muscular tube, the esophagus, conveys food from the pharynx into a large storage organ, the crop.  Chewed food is stored in the crop. Next is the stomach to which are attached six double fingered-shaped digestive glands, the gastric caecae, which produce enzymes that are secreted into the stomach to aid in digestion (Figure 20).  Because most of the digestive tract is lined with chiton (except the stomach and crop) digestion and absorption take place mainly in the stomach.  The digestive tract continues as the intestine, a thin tube without accessory structures.  It leads to the short rectum which opens to the exterior via the anus.  The hair-like tubules lying over the intestine are Malpighian tubules, the excretory organs, which are discussed below. 

 

Figure 20: Internal anatomy of the grasshopper (lateral view).