corpus cardiacum

noun

corpus car·​di·​a·​cum -kär-ˈdī-ə-kəm 

plural corpora cardiaca -kär-ˈdī-ə-kə 

: one of a pair of separate or fused bodies of nervous tissue in many insects that lie posterior to the brain and function in the storage and secretion of brain hormone

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, literally, "cardiac body"

First Known Use

1960, in the meaning defined above