INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
EDITORIAL
COMMENTARY
- The stalk-eyed fly as a model for aggression – is there a conserved role for 5-HT between vertebrates and invertebrates?
Summary: We propose that the role of 5-HT in modulating invertebrate aggression is more nuanced than previously appreciated; there is evidence for distinct roles of 5-HT receptor subtypes in stalk-eyed flies, similar to the situation in vertebrates.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
- The energetics of ‘airtime’: estimating swim power from breaching behaviour in fishes and cetaceans
Highlighted Article: Analyses of 14 fish and cetaceans during breaches indicates that the universal upper boundary of power production is ∼200 W kg−1 muscle, which matches maximum power recorded by animals under any other circumstances.
- Why do muscles lose torque potential when activated within their agonistic group?
Summary: Muscles lose torque potential when activated with their agonistic group and this deficit is not associated with smaller moment arms, changes in inter-muscular pressure or inter-muscular force transfer.
- A selfish genetic element linked to increased lifespan impacts metabolism in female house mice
Summary: Female mice carrying a selfish genetic element have a longer lifespan; these females have lower metabolic rates as they increase in size, which may arise through gene expression differences in the liver.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- A new method for mapping spatial resolution in compound eyes suggests two visual streaks in fiddler crabs
Summary: A new method for estimating the spatial and optical resolution of compound eyes, using the 3D micro-CT images of preserved animals.
- History-dependent perturbation response in limb muscle
Summary: Muscle response to rapid, identical strain perturbations is history dependent, but is captured by a viscoelastic model with memory; the data and model show that the muscle perturbation response depends on locomotor frequency.
- Maternal glucocorticoids promote offspring growth without inducing oxidative stress or shortening telomeres in wild red squirrels
Summary: Experimental increases in glucocorticoids in breeding female North American red squirrels affects offspring postnatal growth but not levels of oxidative damage and antioxidants or telomere lengths.
- Establishment of correctly focused eyes may not require visual input in arthropods
Summary: Visual input appears not to be necessary to develop well-focused eyes in diverse arthropods, including camera-type eyes of beetle larvae and spiders, and compound eyes in flies.
- Experience-dependent tuning of early olfactory processing in the adult honey bee, Apis mellifera
Summary: Experience acquired during adulthood changes the morphology, physiology and behavioral output of the olfactory system in the honey bee.
- Whistling is metabolically cheap for communicating bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Summary: Measurements of the costs of tonal sound production in bottlenose dolphins indicate that whistle communication is very cheap.
- Comparing perineuronal nets and parvalbumin development between blackbird species with differences in early developmental song exposure
Summary: Perineuronal net and parvalbumin comparisons in blackbird species with contrast in early exposure to song tutors reveals a similar pattern in song learning nuclei but not in a song production nucleus.
- Do the enlarged hind legs of male thick-legged flower beetles contribute to take-off or mating?
Highlighted Article: Male flower beetles have large hind legs that they use to grasp females securely during mating, acting like a vice grip; these legs do not enhance performance during take-off relative to females.
- A fitness cost resulting from Hamiltonella defensa infection is associated with altered probing and feeding behaviour in Rhopalosiphum padi
Summary: Reduced performance of aphids infected with a common facultative endosymbiont on poor quality plants may be explained by changes in aphid probing behaviour and decreased phloem sap ingestion.
- Tissue-specific expression of 11β-HSD and its effects on plasma corticosterone during the stress response
Summary: Peripheral enzymes are primarily responsible for enzymatic modulation of the glucocorticoid stress response in songbirds.
- How fast can raptors see?
Highlighted Article: The temporal resolution of vision differs between raptor species, with falcons having higher flicker fusion frequency than hawks.