INSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
- Insect navigation: do ants live in the now?
Summary: Ant navigation has traditionally been thought of as an example of how complex behaviour can come from simple mechanisms. We review recent results that show how an ant's navigational mechanisms are more complex than previously thought.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Feeding in billfishes: inferring the role of the rostrum from a biomechanical standpoint
Summary: Biomechanical differences derived from rostrum morphology and composition lead to species-specific feeding behavior in billfishes.
- Evolutionary adaptations for the temporal processing of natural sounds by the anuran peripheral auditory system
Summary: Peripheral auditory systems of treefrogs are evolutionarily adapted to process the temporal fluctuations inherent in conspecific communication signals.
- Species-specific loss of sexual dimorphism in vocal effectors accompanies vocal simplification in African clawed frogs (Xenopus)
Highlighted article: How do nervous systems change evolutionarily to generate species-specific behaviors? The simplified male courtship songs of a frog, Xenopus borealis, reflect feminization of the larynx and its connection to the brain.
- Symbiont type influences trophic plasticity of a model cnidarian–dinoflagellate symbiosis
Summary: Not all cnidarian–dinoflagellate symbioses are equally nutritionally advantageous to the animal as the genetic identity of the symbiont affects the host's feeding capacity.
- Body saccades of Drosophila consist of stereotyped banked turns
Summary: Using high-speed 3D videography and a dynamically scaled robotic fly, we studied the biomechanics and aerodynamics of saccadic turns in flying flies. We show that these maneuvers are remarkably stereotypic.
- Six degree-of-freedom analysis of hip, knee, ankle and foot provides updated understanding of biomechanical work during human walking
Highlighted article: Six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) analysis of hip–knee–ankle–foot better captures energy changes of the body during gait than conventional 3DOF joint work estimates, revealing increased work contributions from the hip.
- Response to a change in the target nest during ant relocation
Summary: Colonies of relocating ants show remarkable flexibility in their ability to reassess and modify their response when their target nest is changed midway through relocation.
- How effective are acoustic signals in territorial defence in the Lusitanian toadfish?
Summary: Muting experiments show that fish sounds are efficient territorial ‘keep-out’ signals, similar to bird song.
- Making Olympic lizards: the effects of specialised exercise training on performance
Summary: Specialised training in lizards leads to dramatic increases in performance and changes in physiology.
- Acoustic models of orangutan hand-assisted alarm calls
Highlighted article: Orangutans modify the calls they make to predators with their hands. The acoustic effect is that their calls then sound as if they were made by a bigger animal.
- Spectral sensitivity in Onychophora (velvet worms) revealed by electroretinograms, phototactic behaviour and opsin gene expression
Summary: The simple eyes of velvet worms contain only one visual pigment based on onychopsin that detects blue-green light, which the animals actively avoid.
- Sequential exposure to a combination of stressors blocks memory reconsolidation in Lymnaea
Summary: Reconsolidation occurs after a memory has been activated. We show here that a combination of stressors can block this process.
- Pregnancy limits lung function during exercise and depresses metabolic rate in the skink Tiliqua nigrolutea
Highlighted article: Pregnancy depresses metabolic rate in blotched blue tongue lizards and limits exercise ability. Despite the developing fetuses compressing the lungs, gas diffusion ability was not altered.
- Vocalisations of the bigeye Pempheris adspersa: characteristics, source level and active space
Summary: This paper details the bigeye vocalisation and the potential detection distances of the vocalisation under different noise regimes.
- Learning context modulates aversive taste strength in honey bees
Summary: Learning context is a key modulator of taste in the honey bee.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
When fieldwork meets a global pandemic
“Eventually, food transport was going to be stopped, so the field team were airlifted back to Cayenne.”
For Lauren O’Connell (Stanford University), lockdown had a dramatic start when members of her lab were given 24 hours’ notice to detag their poison frogs and evacuate their field station in French Guiana. Read the full story to find out more and hear how her lab is now returning to the bench.
Journal of Cell Science launches new microscopy community site
FocalPlane is an online meeting place for microscopists and biologists to share the latest microscopy news, events and resources. Find out more from Community Manager Christos Kyprianou and read the origin story of FocalPlane.
Pygmy mice whistle for the audience
Pygmy mice voices are much deeper than expected, as deep as those of rats which are 40 times their size, and even more surprisingly, instead of using their vocal cords to communicate, pygmy mice whistle.
E-journal price freeze for 2021
In recognition of the unprecedented and ongoing challenges facing the library and research communities worldwide, there will be no increase in The Company of Biologists’ e-journal prices in 2021. Further details are available in the full announcement.
Molecular mechanisms of biomineralization in marine invertebrates
Understanding marine biomineralization has many tangible benefits in our changing world. In a new Review, Melody Clark (British Antarctic Survey) discusses our current understanding of the factors affecting skeletal production in marine invertebrates.