Animal Physiology: Nervous system

De Jesus, Jordan Paul V.

December 18, 2015

CAS 02 801 E

Terrestrial animal: Leaf insect

Leaf insect or the walking leaf belongs to the family Phyliidae which consists of
more than 50 species and usually has a green color. Most insects like the walking leaf
have advanced nervous system. It has no spine but has an exoskeleton that protects
its nervous system. Insects have three main regions in their nervous system these are
the Central nervous system, visceral nervous system and Peripheral nervous system.
The CNS contains the chain of ganglia and the brain, VNS contains the
stomadeal, ventral visceral and caudal visceral. The peripheral nervous system controls
the processes from the visceral nervous system and central nervous systems.
The brain has the protocerebrum which consists of the optic lobes, occelar lobes
and mushroom bodies which are responsible for the memory and vision of the insect,
deutocerebrum which consists of the antennal lobes for the sensing of pheromones and
the tritocerebrum which is the chain of frontal ganglia to subesophageal ganglia which is
responsible for the food intake of the insect. The visceral nervous system consists of the
stomatodeal which is responsible for the foregut salivary glands, ventral visceral which
is responsible for the spiracles heart and caudal visceral which is responsible for the
hindgut reproductive organs.
Insect senses can be subdivided into three parts: The mechanoreceptors which
consist of the tactile, proprioception and auditory, Chemoreception which consist the
olfaction and gustation and photoreceptors which is responsible for the vision and
memory. They have external organs which are classified from setae which consist of
the trichogen cell, tomogen cell and sensory neurons. These can be classified into
shapes such as the trichoid sensillae has a hair like shape, coeloconica sensillae has a
cone in pits shape and campaniform sensillae which has a plate shape.
The tactile mechanoreception consists of trichoid sensillae which is directionally
sensitive and proprioreceptors which are located both internally and externally. External
proprioreceptors are in the form of hair plates while internal proprioreceptors consist of
chordotonal organs, scolopidia which consist of bipolar neuron, solopale cell with cap
and attachment cell which are located between the internal integuments.

Chordotonal organs have subgenual organs which are located on the femoraltibial joint and these organs can detect vibrations. Johnstons organ on the other hand is
the one responsible for sensing wind speed and sound reception. Tympanic organ is
responsible for hearing, communication, detection of predators or prey.
Chemoreception has two parts the olfaction and gustation. Olfaction is
responsible for the distance chemoreception usually detects gaseous, low
concentrations and high specificity. Gustation on the other hand is the one responsible
for contact chemoreception which usually detects in liquid, high concentrations and low
specificity. Semiochemicals are used for intraspecific communications and sensing
pheromones which are released via exocrine glands.

Aquatic animal: Philippine humpback grouper (C. Altevelis)

Humpback groupers belong to the family of Serridenae and are distributed
throughout the tropics and West-indo pacific regions. These species belong to the
phylum Chordata which means that they belong to the classification of bony fishes. It
has a skeletal system and cartilage.
Fishes have a poor developed nervous system. It can be subdivided into three
regions: the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. The forebrain is responsible for the smell
and eyesight of the fish, midbrain on the other hand is responsible for the muscles, food
uptake and blood regulation. Hindbrain is responsible for the locomotion. Fishes have a
sensory system called the Lateral line system which they use when a sudden change of
pressure in the water occurs they can easily change their movements.

Avian Animal: Palawan fruit bat

Palawan flying fox or Palawan fruit bat belongs to the dying species of megabats
called the Acerodon. Like any other mammals, bats have spinal cord and a central
nervous system. The only difference is that in the morphology of the bat it has elongated
fingers to support its flight and large ears for echolocation. The echolocation of bat
helps them detect the perimeter of the environment also to detect its prey, echolocation
acts as sonar to echolocate its prey and also to support its movements when a potential
predator is coming.