About the Cover
Cover image
Cover: The marine mollusc Tritonia diomedea orients to the Earth's magnetic field and possesses a simple nervous system accessible to electrophysiology. Tritonia therefore represents a promising model system in which to investigate the neural circuitry that underlies magnetic orientation behaviour. On page 381-388, J. H. Wang, S. D. Cain and K. J. Lohmann report on identifiable neurons that respond electrically to changes in earth-strength magnetic fields and probably play an efferent role in the magnetic orientation circuitry. Whereas most research involving magnetic orientation has relied on behavioural approaches, the Tritonia system provides an opportunity to study directly how a simple nervous system detects magnetic cues, processes them, and generates appropriate motor responses. Photograph by Shaun D. Cain.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Editors’ choice – How pit vipers see (infra)red
Image credit: Tobias Kohl
Tobias Kohl and colleagues reveal that pit vipers track the front of a moving thermal image when processing infrared signals sent from the pit organs in a region of the brain known as the nucleus of the lateral descending trigeminal tract.
Featured article – Tails guard against voracious insects with curtain of breeze
Image credit: Marguerite Matherne and David Hu
Why animals swish their tails to guard against flies was a mystery until Marguerite Matherne, David Hu and a team from the Georgia Institute of Technology began analysing the motions of a wide range of animal tails and discovered that the swinging appendages generate a breeze that is sufficient to waft away irritating insects.
Review – Invertebrate serotonin receptors: a molecular perspective on classification and pharmacology
Many 5-HT receptors have been characterized at the molecular level in diverse species. Ann Jane Tierney considers 5-HT receptors in invertebrates, addressing how to classify and name these heterologously expressed receptors and comparing their pharmacological properties.
Featured article – Signalling cocktail secures octopus mum's fate
Image credit: Yan Wang
Motherhood is a fatal commitment for female octopuses, who fast as they tend their developing brood of eggs, then die just as the eggs hatch. Over 40 years ago, this selfless sacrifice was shown to be driven by the optic gland, buried deep in the female octopus brain. Now, Yan Wang and Clifton Ragsdale describe how a cocktail of signalling molecules coordinating various physiological processes is responsible for the new mother’s demise.
Meet the team
Are you going to the 2018 APS Comparative Physiology meeting in October? This meeting is supported by JEB, and several of our Editors will be there - drop by the JEB exhibition stand (Booth #4) to say hello and pick up a range of JEB goodies!
preLights – Antlions are sensitive to subnanometer amplitude vibrations carried by sand substrates
James Foster highlights a preprint from Vincent Lorent and co-workers revealing that antlion larvae hiding in their sand pits detect sand vibrations just a fraction of a nanometer in size. These vibrations inform the antlion of an approaching ant, and they respond by throwing sand to prevent prey from escaping their sand pits.