Do insects have hearts? Cardiovascular systems?

Question

If not, how do they function?

Answer 1

Yes, but they are a little different from ours. In vertebrates, blood is pumped through vessels by the heart. Oxygenated blood passes through arteries into capillaries and then dumps its nutrients and oxygen off in tissues. The deoxygenated blood then returns by veins. A fluid called lymph bathes the cells in these tissues, and carries the lost fluid (from blood) and waste products of the cells through a series of channels (lymphatic vessels), where it will eventually dump back into a vein.

Insects, however, have an open circulatory system. Blood and lymph (mixed into one fluid called hemolymph) bathes the organs and tissues in the insect's body, and is not usually confined to vessels. It is moved around mostly by the muscle contractions from normal movement, but there are also simple hearts that pull in blood from the body cavities, and propel it into other cavities.

Answer 2

Yes, insects have hearts that pump hemolymph (kind of insect blood) around their systems. Though their heart is quite different from a vertebrate heart, there are some of the genes that direct heart development in vertebrates and invertebrates that are very similar.

Most insects have hearts. Some of the smaller types don't. An insect heart is fairly simple, it's basically a muscular tube that contacts from one end to the other, forcing blood through it. Insects have an open circulatory system. What this means is that the blood flows from the blood vessels out the end into the body cavity. It sloshes around the body cavity until it gets sucked back into the other open end of the blood system somewhere else. This is in contrast to mammals where the blood never leaves the blood vessels at any stage.

Answer 3

yes.