Hepatopancreas
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The hepatopancreas is an organ of the digestive tract of arthropods, gastropods and fish. It provides the functions which in mammals are provided separately by the liver and pancreas.
Arthropods, especially detritovores in the Order Isopoda Sub-Order Oniscidea (woodlice, for example), have shown to be able to store heavy metals consumed from the forest floor in their hepatopancreas. This could lead to bioaccumulation through the food chains and implications for food web destructions, if accumulations get high enough in these polluted areas. A good example of this is seen in a study by Hopkins and Martin (1985) where they found that high metal concentrations are seen in spiders of the genus Dysdera which feed on terrestrial isopods, including their hepatopancreas, the major metal storage organ of isopods in polluted sites.
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