the analog of the vertebrate spinal cord.
receives and processes sensory information and generates most of an insects movements.
there are ~23,000 neurons in the VNC
references
Takemura, S., Hayworth, K. J., Huang, G. B., Januszewski, M., Lu, Z., Marin, E. C., Preibisch, S., Xu, C. S., Bogovic, J., Champion, A. S., Cheong, H. S., Costa, M., Eichler, K., Katz, W., Knecht, C., Li, F., Morris, B. J., Ordish, C., Rivlin, P. K., … Berg, S. (2024). A Connectome of the Male Drosophila Ventral Nerve Cord. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.97769.1