9/18/2017

PLTH 103
INTERNAL ANATOMY, PART 1
Lecture 6 September18, 2017

Australian Jewel Beetle - J. bakewelli

Order: Coleoptera Family: Buprestidae

Buprestids - the jewel beetles

A common brown beetle

About 1 in. long
Feed on eucalyptus trees

The evolutionary trap

1983 - David Rentz & Darryl Gwynn spot a male
jewel beetle trying to mate with a beer bottle
Emu Export stubby bottle had color and bumpy pattern
similar to a females shell
Males would mate until they died

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The evolutionary trap

Rentz & Gwynn won an Ig Nobel Prize
The prize for research that makes people laugh

Emu Export changed the bottle to remove the

bumps

Overview
Last week
External anatomy of insects
Head: eyes, antennae, & mouthparts
Thorax: wings & legs
Abdomen: Sexual organs

This week
Internal anatomy - the organ systems
Digestive, circulatory, respiratory, musculatory, sensory, nervous
& reproductive

Internal anatomy overview

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Digestive system
The insects alimentary canal, its gut, has 3 divisions
separated by 2 sphincters
1. Foregut -
2. Midgut -

3. Hindgut -

Alimentary canal - Foregut

Foregut -

______________ is a valve controlling flow to the midgut
May have teeth for grinding food

Modifications of the gut

Esophagus diverticulata in anopheles mosquitoes
3 enlarged crops separated from the foregut

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Proventriculus as a gizzard
May contain chitinous teeth for grinding food
Also bristles for filtering out large particles
Fleas - a filter for clots of bacteria, blood, and skin
Regurgitate onto host, hence the bubonic plague

Alimentary canal - Midgut

Midgut -
Just a single layer of cells
Peritrophic membrane

Gastric caeca

Alimentary canal - hindgut

Hindgut - large intestine like
structure that absorbs water

Starts where the malpighian

tubules join the gut
Malpighian tubules -

2-200 depending on order

Ends at the rectum and anus

where waste is excreted

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Circulatory system
Insects have an open system circulatory system
Insect blood ( ) flows through the open body
cavity (the ) rather than arteries and veins
Haemolymphs main purpose is to

Circulatory system
The Dorsal vessel is the main pumping organ, it
extends from the back of the abdomen to the head
1. Heart -

2. Aorta -

Circulatory system
Wing shaped alary muscles connect the dorsal vessel
to the body wall
Dorsal diaphragm -

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Circulatory system

Some insects may have

_____________________
near their appendages

Reflexive bleeding
Excretion of haemolymph containing defensive chemicals
Typically through joints in response to stress
The blister beetle (fam. Meloidae) named after this
Chemical cantharidin causes skin irritation

Respiration
Tracheal system, system for transporting gases
Composed of a series of tubes (__________) that connect
to holes in the side of each body segment (___________)

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Respiratory system - Branching

Spiracles open into tracheal trunks, large trachea
that run the length of the body
In each segment Tracheal branches separate from the
trunks, and tracheoles separate from the branches
working themselves into muscles and organs
Tracheole cells are the final branch, they release the
oxygen and pick up CO2 through diffusion

Respiratory system
Fast moving insects may have air sacs, large
balloon shaped tracheal structures

Breathing underwater
Insects that live underwater for part of their life
need a different system for breathing.
Gills - many larvae use gills at the spiracle openings to
convert the open air system into a closed one
Some insects carry their oxygen with them in a bubble
over one or more of their spiracles - ______________

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Jet propelled dragonfly larva

Dragonfly larva gills are inside the rectum
Can shoot water out by clenching abdominal muscles

Questions?