Evolutionary trends of digestion and absorption in the major insect orders.

The spatial organization of digestion, which corresponds to the steps by which the ingested food is hydrolyzed in the different regions of the gut, was described in insects from the major insect orders. The data showed that the overall pattern of digestion depends more on the insect phylogeny than on the insect feeding habits. Based on this, basic digestive patterns were recognized and were proposed to represent the major ancestors from which the different orders evolved. The putative ancestors chosen to represent different points in the evolution from basal Neoptera to more derived orders were: Neoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera-Panorpoidea (Diptera-Lepidoptera), Lepidoptera, Cyclorrhapha. This review updates the physiological data supporting the putative midgut basic patterns by discussing available data on insects pertaining to different taxa and details the evolutionary trends of midgut function among the major insect orders. Furthermore, by using recent genomic and transcriptome data, this review discusses the few insects for which the spatial organization of midgut absorption is known.