Crop (anatomy)
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The crop is a thin-walled expanded portion of the alimentary tract used for the storage of food prior to digestion that is found in many animals, including earthworms<ref>Worm World: About Earthworms- http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/worm/pg000102.html</ref>, leeches<ref>R. T. Sawyer, Leach Biology and Behaviour, Volume II - http://www.biopharm-leeches.com/pdf/bioandbehav.pdf</ref>, insects, and birds.
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[edit] Bees
Cropping is used by bees to temporarily store nectar of flowers. When bees "suck" nectar, it is stored in their crop.<ref>Honeybee Biology - http://koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/Plants_Human/bees/bees.html</ref>
[edit] Birds
In a bird's digestive system, the crop is an expanded, muscular pouch near the gullet or throat. It is a part of the digestive tract, essentially an enlarged part of the esophagus. As with most other organisms that have a crop, the crop is used to temporarily store food. Not all birds have a crop. In adult doves and pigeons, the crop can produce crop milk to feed newly hatched birds.<ref>The Alimentary Canal in Birds - http://www.earthlife.net/birds/digestion.html</ref>
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| Upper gastrointestinal tract
Mouth | Pharynx (nasopharynx, oropharynx, hypopharynx) | Esophagus | Crop | Stomach (rugae, gastric pits, cardia, pylorus) Lower gastrointestinal tract Small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, ileum) | Vermiform appendix Large intestine: Cecum | Colon (ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon) | Rectum (Houston valve, rectal ampulla, pectinate line) | Anal canal (anal valves, anal sinuses, anal columns) Anus: Sphincter ani internus muscle | Sphincter ani externus muscle Enteric nervous system: Meissner's plexus | Auerbach's plexus Enteroendocrine cells: G cells | Enterochromaffin cells | Enterochromaffin-like cell GALT: Peyer's patches | M cells parietal cells | chief cells | goblet cells | Brunner's glands | Paneth cells | enterocytes intestinal villus/microvillus | crypts of Lieberkühn | circular folds | taenia coli | haustra | epiploic appendix |
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