The salivary gland possesses a single anterior duct with a columnar epithelium, two lateral ducts with simple cubical epithelium, which becomes columnar in the proximal portion, and two thin-walled reservoirs, from which two secretory regions arise. The dorsal and ventral branches of the secretory regions are connected via transverse commissures and ends in a loop. The secretory region is uniform and consists on a simple cubical epithelium. This paper also presents a review on the morphology of the salivary glands in insects, mainly in Hymenoptera-Aculeata.
Insect; ant; SEM; morphology
