Arthropod's Digestive System
Arthropods have organisms that are carnivores, herbivores, detritus feeders, filter feeders, and parasites. They might get their food in a variety of ways with their own specialized abilities to kill, eat, and plain out survive their digestion system and many other things are very closely similar. Their digestive system is made up of three parts. These parts are called the foregut, the midgut, and the hind gut. Their locations in the body correspond with their names. The foregut being in the front, midgut in the middle, and the hind gut in the back. Depending on the food that is eaten and how it is eaten makes each of these parts different in their own way. -T.J. Gray
•Atrax robustus (Australian Funnel Web Spider)
Instead of eating solid food spiders eat liquid, because of this they have a gut with a small opening that can only cope with liquid food. They also have two sets of filters to keep solids out. The Australian funnel spider smashes its victim using its chelicerae and the bases of the pedipalps, while flooding it with enzymes. Then The chelicerae and the bottom of the pedipalps form a pre-oral cavity that holds the food that they are processing. The stomach in the spider pushes the food down farther into the digestive system. Then the mid-gut uses digestive enzymes and takes out the nutrients from the food that the Australian Funnel Web spider needs to live. Then the spider changes the nitrogenous waster into uric acid which can be discharged as a dry substance. Then these little tubes take this new uric acid solid solution and place them in the cloacal chamber. Then they are pushed through the anus of the spider. |
•Macrobrachium rosenbergii (Giant River Prawn)
The digestive system of the Giant River Prawn is made up of three main parts. Its digestive system is the general form of digestion from which other creatures stem off of. The foregut starts at the mouth where the food enters. Then it goes into the oesophogus, which eventually leads us to the gastric mill. This is where the food is ground up for digestion. The last part of the foregut is the hepatopancreas. This would be where poisons and other harmful things are stopped from going any further in the digestive tract. The digestive glands (midgut) in the Giant River Prawn is where the digestive enzymes are added to break down the food and its nutrients. The nutrients are absorbed in the intestines as it passes through. The intestines turn into the colon where the excretion process begins as the waste is compacted into pellets. These pellets are then pushed through the muscular anus in the back of the prawn. |
•Narceus Americanus (North American Millipede)
The digestive tract of the North American Millepede and for millipedes in general are extremely simple and arguably the most simple of all Arthropods. The the North American Millipede's diet consists of dead leaves. At first they moisten the leaves with saliva before eating. Then these leaves go through a simple tube through the body. There are salivary glands that add enzymes and help digest the leaves through the body. After the nutrients are absorbed they are propelled out through the anal hole in the back of the millipede. |