Carlina Grasshopper - Dissosteira carolina
Carolina Grasshoppers are very wide spread across North America. Grasshoppers are mostly omnivores but seem to prefer to feed on grass, leaves, and cereal crops. The grasshopper's digestive system consists three main parts; the foregut, the midgut, and the hindgut. The foregut is the mouth. The mouth cavity, or pharynx, leads into the oesophagus . This canal is very small in thickness and length and leads into the crop. The crop, is also thin and leads the food further into the gizzard. The gizzard grinds the food with tooth like chitin on the lining. The midgut is the stomach of the grasshopper. Between the gizzard and the stomach are gastic caeca. These caeca extend to the stomach while producing digestive fluids. The stomach is lined with peritrophic membrane which can withstand the caustic fluids to digest the food. The hindgut, as expected, is the end of the digestive system. The hindgut progresses from the anterior ileum, to the middle colon, to the rectum, to the anus.