A Suboesophageal Ganglion Cell Innervates Heart and Retrocerebral Glandular Complex in the Locust

Abstract

The suboesophageal ganglion of the migratory locust Locusta migratoria contains a pair of large neurosecretory cells located posteriorly, close to the sagittal plane. By means of double labelling, it is shown that the cells are immunoreactive to bovine pancreatic polypeptide. Using a combination of electrophysiological, neuroanatomical and immunocytochemical methods, it is shown that the neurones project into the corpora cardiaca with ascending anterior axons and into the lateral cardiac nerve cords with posterior axons that descend into the thoracic and abdominal nerve cord.