Crop (anatomy)

This article is about the digestive croup. For the top of the hindquarters, also known as the croup, see Rump (animal).
Two white-bellied parrots with bulging crops after feeding.
As a graylag goose eats grass, the full crop is clearly visible.
One greater flamingo-chick in Zoo Basel is fed on crop milk.
The crop (serial 4) of a pigeon (Columba livia) is prominently seen at the beginning of the alimentary canal.

The crop (also the croup, the craw, the ingluvies, and the sublingual pouch) is a thin-walled, expanded portion of the alimentary tract, which is used for the storage of food before digestion. The crop is an anatomical structure in vertebrate animals, such as birds, and invertebrate animals, such as gastropods (snails and slugs), earthworms,[1] leeches,[2] and insects.[3]

  1. ^ "Worm World: About Earthworms". Archived from the original on 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
  2. ^ Sawyer, Roy T. "Leech Biology and Behaviour, Volume II" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  3. ^ Triplehorn, Charles A; Johnson, Norman F (2005). Borror and DeLong's introduction to the study of insects (7th ed.). Australia: Thomson, Brooks/Cole. ISBN 9780030968358.