Supraesophageal ganglion

The supraesophageal ganglion (arthropod brain) is the first part of the insect central nervous system. It receives and processes information from the first, second, and third metameres. The supraesophageal ganglion lies dorsal to the esophagus and consists of three parts, each a pair of ganglia:

• The protocerebrum, associated with the eyes (compound eyes and ocelli).

• The deutocerebrum processes sensory information from the antennae. It consists of two parts, the antennal lobe that receives axons of olfactory receptor neurons from the antenna and the dorsal lobe that receives mechanosensory and gustatory receptor neurons from the antenna. The dorsal lobe also contains motor neurons which controls the antennal muscles.

• The tritocerebrum integrates sensory inputs from the previous two pairs of ganglia. The lobes of the tritocerebrum split to circumvent the esophagus and begin the subesophageal ganglion.

Supraesophageal ganglion(5), Subesophageal ganglion(31)

The subesophageal ganglion continues the nervous system and lies ventral to the esophagus. Finally, the segmental ganglia are found in each body segment as a fused ganglion and they provide the segments with some autonomous control.

Further reading

• Erber, J., and R. Menzel. "Visual interneurons in the median protocerebrum of the bee." Journal of comparative physiology 121.1 (1977): 65-77.
• Wong, Allan M., Jing W. Wang, and Richard Axel. "Spatial Representation of the Glomerular Map in the Drosophila Protocerebrum." Cell 109.2 (2002): 229-241.
• Homberg, Uwe, Thomas A. Christensen, and J. G. Hildebrand. "Structure and function of the deutocerebrum in insects." Annual review of entomology 34.1 (1989): 477-501.
• Aubele, Elisabeth, and Nikolai Klemm. "Origin, destination and mapping of tritocerebral neurons of locust." Cell and Tissue Research 178.2 (1977): 199-219.
• Chaudonneret, J. "Evolution of the insect brain with special reference to the so-called tritocerebrum." Arthropod brain. Wiley, New York (1987): 3-26.