The hepatopancreas, digestive gland or midgut gland is an organ of the digestive tract of and . It provides the functions which in are provided separately by the liver and pancreas, including the production of digestive Enzyme, and absorption of digested food.
Arthropods
Arthropods, especially
in the Order
Isopoda, Suborder Oniscidea (
woodlouse), have been shown to be able to store heavy metals in their hepatopancreas.
This could lead to
bioaccumulation through the
food chain and implications for
food web destruction, if the accumulation gets high enough in polluted areas; for example, high metal concentrations are seen in
of the genus
Dysdera which feed on
woodlouse, including their hepatopancreas, the major metal storage organ of isopods in
polluted sites.
Molluscs
The hepatopancreas is a centre for
lipid metabolism and for storage of lipids in
Gastropoda.
[Böer M., Graeve M. & Kattner G. (2006). "Exceptional long-term starvation ability and sites of lipid storage of the Arctic pteropod Clione limacina". Polar Biology 30(5): 571-580. .]
Some species in the genus Phyllodesmium contains active zooxanthellae of the genus Symbiodinium in the hepatopancreas.
See also
-
Crab duplex-specific nuclease
-
Digestive system of gastropods
-
Tomalley, the hepatopancreas of crustaceans, often used as food
