Kayla Martin

Professor McDowell
Biology 100 Study Skills
18 September 2015

Intercellular digestion is a very simple form of digestion, composed of food vacuoles

cellular organelles in which hydrolytic enzymes break down food. In most animal species,
hydrolysis occurs largely by extracellular digestion, the breakdown of food in compartments that
are continuous with the outside of the animals body. Having one or more extracellular
compartments for digestion enables an animal to devour much larger pieces of food than can be
ingested by phagocytosis. (Reese et al., 899) The means of digestion in a hydra compares to that
of a grasshopper, though they share multiple variations as well.
A hydra is a cnidarian, a simple multicellular organism that has a relatively simple body
plan, including a gastrovascular cavity where it undergoes both intracellular and extracellular
digestion. Though this digestive compartment has only a single opening it functions rather well
in digestion and in the distribution of nutrients throughout the animals body. An unfavorable
aspect of this structure is that the hydra must digest the nutrients and expel waste before
consuming and digesting once more, making the digestive process rather slow. When enzymes
are produced and released into the gastrovascular cavity, it begins to break down the food which
has been consumed, this is extracellular digestion. Intracellular digestion occurs when food
particles are engulfed and digested in food vacuoles. Unlike a hydra, a grasshopper has several
digestive chambers. Pouches called gastric cecae extend from the beginning of the midgut and

function in digestion and absorption. The grasshoppers digestive tube is extended between two
openings, a mouth and an anus, as opposed to the hydra which only has one opening. This tube is
called a complete digestive tract or an alimentary canal. These means of digestion and absorption
in the grasshopper work well in its own processes, specifically in that it can digest larger forms
of nutrients. It is also quicker and more efficient than the hydra in this aspect due to its several
chambers. An animal with an alimentary canal can ingest food while earlier meals are still being
digested, a feat that is likely to be difficult or inefficient for an animal with a gastrovascular
cavity. (Reese et al., 900)
The hydra and the grasshopper both relate to the necessity of digestion, absorption, and
the distribution of nutrients throughout the animals bodies. The two organisms both preform
extra cellular digestion, a digestive process that occurs outside of the animals bodies in
compartments. The hydras body plan is not as efficient as the grasshoppers due to its lack of an
alimentary canal, or complete digestive tract this specified cavity can have specialized regions
that carry out digestion and absorption in a stepwise fashion. It cannot perform simultaneous
ingestion, digestion, and excretion because digestion begins in the gastrovascular cavity and is
completed intracellularly after small food particles are engulfed by specialized cells of the
gastrodermis. (Reese et al., 899)

Works Cited
Reese, B. Ruth, et al. Campbell Biology 10th Edition. Boston, MA. 2011. Print.