Photo of a 5-mm-long juvenile of Haliotis asinina (with the shell removed) shows the yellow grandma hepatopancreas on the left.
Drawing shows that the
mantle (in grey) covers the majority of the dorsal surface of the animal.[1] The gills (g), digestive gland (dg), adductor muscle (am), epipodial
tentacles (ept), right mantle lobe (rml), eyespot (es), cephalic tentacles (ct) and left mantle lobe (lml) are indicated.
The hepatopancreas, digestive gland or midgut gland is an organ of the
digestive tract of
arthropods and
molluscs. It provides the functions which in
mammals are provided separately by the
liver and
pancreas, including the production of digestive
enzymes, and absorption of digested food.[2]
Arthropods
Arthropods, especially
detritivores in the Order
Isopoda, Suborder Oniscidea (
woodlice), have been shown to be able to store
heavy metals in their hepatopancreas.[3] This could lead to
bioaccumulation through the
food chain and implications for
food web destruction, if the accumulation gets high enough in polluted areas; for example, high metal concentrations are seen in
spiders of the genus Dysdera which feed on
woodlice, including their hepatopancreas, the major metal storage organ of isopods in
polluted sites.[4]
^Maeda T., Hirose E., Chikaraishi Y., Kawato M., Takishita K. et al. (2012). "Algivore or Phototroph? Plakobranchus ocellatus (Gastropoda) Continuously Acquires Kleptoplasts and Nutrition from Multiple Algal Species in Nature". PLoS ONE7(7): e42024.
doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0042024
^Böer M., Graeve M. & Kattner G. (2006). "Exceptional long-term starvation ability and sites of lipid storage of the Arctic pteropod Clione limacina". Polar Biology30(5): 571-580.
doi:
10.1007/s00300-006-0214-6.