Aedes aegypti mosquito crop

A crop (also known as croup, craw or ingluvies) is a part of the gut used for the storage of food prior to digestion. This anatomical structure has been noted in a number of organisms including birds, gastropods (snails and slugs), earthworms, leeches, and a variety of insects. This image shows the crop from an Aedes aegypti mosquito stained for three proteins. In red is the protein Dicer-2, part of a regulatory pathway which silences gene expression. Actin, a component of the structural cytoskeleton is shown in green, and cells' nuclei (or 'brain') are stained in blue.