Hello! My name is Gary! I am a grasshopper. My favorite foods are cereal crops like wheat barley and oats. For being such a small insect, I am able to digest all my foods just like you with a complete digestive system.

Our digestive systems are a pretty different though. Us insects do have some similar structures that humans have: intestines, rectum, stomach, salivary glands, esophagus, anus, and salivary duct.

Some structures that humans don't have are crop, Malpighian tubes, gizzard, and gastric caeca.

Here is a diagram of the digestive system of most insects! All of the key structures are shown.

The structures that humans don't have all help insects because we have different anatomy. Fun fact: I have an extracellular digestive system.

Crops are muscular pouch near the throat. They are used to temporarily store food. Malpighian tubules are apart of the excretory system that move waste from the midgut to the handout, then to the rectum.

I also have a gizzard, which is apart of my stomach that helps grind food.

My gastric caeca increases my ability to secrete digestive enzymes.