The Semper's organ is an anatomical structure, a

gland In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Structure De ...

located in the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

of some

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s.Lane J. N. (1964) "Semper's Organ, a Cephalic Gland in Certain Gastropods". ''

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science The ''Journal of Cell Science'' (formerly the ''Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science'') is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of cell biology. The journal is published by The Company of Biologists. The journal is partnered with P ...

'' 105(3): 331-342. This organ was named after the German zoologist

Carl Gottfried Semper Carl Gottfried Semper (July 6, 1832, Altona, Hamburg – May 29, 1893, Würzburg) was a German ethnologist and animal ecologist. Career Semper attended the Hanover Polytechnic from 1851 to 1854 and achieved a Ph.D. in zoology from the University ...

, who first published information about this anatomical structure in 1856. Semper C. (1856) Z. wiss. Zool., 8, 366.

References

Gastropod anatomy {{gastropod-stub