Cover image
Cover: European robins tested in orientation cages change their directional preferences under different wavelengths and intensities of light. In the study by Rachel Muheim, Johan Backman and Susanne Ackerson (see pp. 3845-3856), young European robins exposed to 560.5 nm green light (left graph) were well oriented into the seasonally appropriate southwesterly direction, were completely disoriented under 567.5 nm green-yellow light (middle graph) and showed a shifted orientation under 617 nm red light (right graph). The lower graph gives the spectra of the monochromatic lights used in the study, the full-spectrum light produced by the xenon arc lamps (white line), the spectra of an incandescent light bulb (orange line) and the natural spectrum shortly after sunset (violet line). The picture of the European robin was kindly provided by Jens B. Bruun.
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Welcome to JEB’s new Editor Monica Daley
We are pleased to welcome Monica Daley to JEB’s Editorial team. Monica has had a long association with JEB before taking up her new role, overseeing peer review of neuromuscular physiology, terrestrial biomechanics and integrative physiology of locomotion.
In the field with Robyn Hetem
Continuing our fieldwork series, Robyn Hetem reflects on working with species ranging from aardvark to zebra, and the impact COVID-19 has had on fieldwork.
Read & Publish participation continues to grow
“It is particularly encouraging for early career researchers, as it allows them to display their research globally without the need to find costs to cover the open access option.”
Professor Fernando Montealegre-Z (University of Lincoln) shares his experience of publishing Open Access as part of our growing Read & Publish initiative. We now have over 150 institutions in 15 countries and four library consortia taking part – find out more and view our full list of participating institutions.
Nocturnal reef residents have deep-sea-like eyes
Fanny de Busserolles and colleagues from The University of Queensland have discovered that the eyes of nocturnal reef fish have multibank retinas, layers of photoreceptors, similar to the eyes of deep-sea fish that live in dim light conditions.
Mechanisms underlying gut microbiota–host interactions in insects
In their Review, Konstantin Schmidt and Philipp Engel summarise recent findings about the mechanisms involved in gut colonisation and the provisioning of beneficial effects in gut microbiota–insect symbiosis.