302 
Acanthia lect^daria 
After leaving the pharyngeal pump, the oesophagus becomes very 
narrow and accompanied by a trachea trunk on either side passes through 
the circum-oesophageal commissure (Fig. 26). 
Between the end of the crop and the beginning of the stomach, the 
oesophagus gradually widens until, as the stomach, it broadens out 
considerably. The tissues forming the stomach walls are very elastic 
and have bands of muscle fibres in their substance. One effect of 
these muscles is to alter its shape, as has already been mentioned. 
When full to repletion, the stomach stretches from side to side of the 
abdomen, while under starvation conditions it is more or less confined 
to the middle of the space. Repletion makes the stomach pear-shaped, 
the pointed end being at the junction between stomach and intestine. 
Repletion always carries with it the presence of much air in the 
stomach, while even a hungry bug has some evidently left over from 
last meal. Once the blood is in the stomach, digestion begins ; the first 
visible result being that the colour changes from red to sepia. This is 
brought about by the secretion of the local glands. The position of 
these is best described by saying that they are arranged on the walls of 
the pouches of the stomach, the pouches being on a horizontal plane. 
When fully fed the position alters because of the stretching of the walls. 
These glands are of a very dark brown colour. At the apex of the 
stomach they are sparsely placed and light in colour, while at the base, 
where is the sphincter between stomach and intestine, they are much 
more numerous and darker (Fig. 28) ; in fact the stomach would here 
seem to have a dark brown continuous band on it. These glands 
evidently secrete a sepia-coloured fluid, but its nature is at present 
unknown. 
The effect on the blood is exactly as Landois describes, viz. the 
absorbed blood is changed to a black or brownish-black mass in which 
are many small dark brown granules. What these granules are the 
writer cannot say. 
A great deal of the digestion must be done in the stomach, for its 
walls and sides, besides being themselves very glandular, are covered 
with villi, so that there is available a large area of glandular tissue. 
At the posterior end there is the sphincter muscle which closes the 
passage to the intestine. This latter lies curved to the left in a plane 
at right angles to the plane of the stomach and surrounding its base. 
Occasionally the intestine is pouched asymmetrically but all on one 
edge, and not irregularly over the whole surface. One curious thing 
about the intestine is that, when utilised for storage, as happens when 
