Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 External morphology and functional anatomy
- 3 The integument, moulting and regeneration
- 4 The musculature and endoskeleton
- 5 The nervous system and sense organs
- 6 Sensory responses and related behaviour
- 7 Endocrinology
- 8 The alimentary canal
- 9 The poison glands
- 10 Feeding and digestion
- 11 The respiratory system
- 12 The circulatory system
- 13 Pigments
- 14 Connective tissue and fat body
- 15 Head glands
- 16 The Malpighian tubules and nephridia
- 17 The reproductive system and reproduction
- 18 Post-embryonic development and life history
- 19 Epidermal glands and their function, defence and predators
- 20 Parasites
- 21 Physiology and ecology
- 22 Taxonomy
- 23 Relationships of the chilopod orders
- 24 The classification of the Chilopoda
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - The circulatory system
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 External morphology and functional anatomy
- 3 The integument, moulting and regeneration
- 4 The musculature and endoskeleton
- 5 The nervous system and sense organs
- 6 Sensory responses and related behaviour
- 7 Endocrinology
- 8 The alimentary canal
- 9 The poison glands
- 10 Feeding and digestion
- 11 The respiratory system
- 12 The circulatory system
- 13 Pigments
- 14 Connective tissue and fat body
- 15 Head glands
- 16 The Malpighian tubules and nephridia
- 17 The reproductive system and reproduction
- 18 Post-embryonic development and life history
- 19 Epidermal glands and their function, defence and predators
- 20 Parasites
- 21 Physiology and ecology
- 22 Taxonomy
- 23 Relationships of the chilopod orders
- 24 The classification of the Chilopoda
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Insects, which have a very well-developed tracheal system, have a much reduced blood system but in the Chilopoda both systems are well developed (Fahlander, 1938). The dorsal tubular heart is connected by one or more pairs of commissures to a ventral supraneural vessel. The blood flows forward in the heart which is continued anteriorly as the anterior aorta. This vessel, the commissures, supraneural vessel and latero-dorsal arteries of the heart supply the organs with blood through open ended arteries. There is little evidence of a venous system. Blood returns to the heart through paired ostia which are typically arranged one pair to each segment.
The heart
In Scolopendra cingulata the heart is suspended from two connective tissue sheets which enclose the dorsal sinus (Fig. 138a). It is attached laterally on each side to a double sheet of connective tissue which encloses the lateral sinus containing the pericardial cells. The lateral sheets join and continue outwards as a single layer. Fan-shaped alary muscles which attach to the heart spread through these lateral sheets (Fig. 138b). The dorsal sinus communicates widely with the perivisceral coelom through large openings between successive alary muscles (Jangi, 1966). Herbst (1891), Duboscq (1898) and Fahlander (1938) regarded the cavity of the dorsal sinus and the lateral sinuses as representing the pericardium: Heymons (1901) considered that the pericardium consisted of two very large cavities enclosing the dorsal longitudinal muscles.
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- Information
- The Biology of Centipedes , pp. 209 - 219Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1981