How do Cockroaches Digest and what organs do they use to do so?
BEH301, You can look at the diagram at URL: http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/rolleston/plate_viii.html … This is an illustration by GEORGE ROLLESTON published in 1870. Cockroaches shred food with their mouthparts and then swallow it using their salivary glands (e) and salivary reservoir (f) to moisten their food before it enters their crop (d). Their gizzard or proventriculus (g) grinds the moist food further and adds it to the stomach (i) into which digestive enzymes are poured from the gastric caeca (h), after which it flows into the intestines (l) which is shown separated from the tubular stomach by a short segment of the peritrophic membrane (k) which is a chitin sac woven by the microvilli of the stomach to contain the bolus of food which passes through the GI track. The hind intestine (lower-l) removes water from the digestate and then the rectum (m) compacts the remains into a roach scat. The digested food is relieved of its nutritive materials by the walls of the stoma
