INSIDE JEB
REVIEW
- Directional hearing in insects: biophysical, physiological and ecological challenges
Summary: This Review describes the biophysical, physiological and behavioural solutions that allow small insects to determine the direction of a sound source in space, even under complex field conditions.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
- Flight activity and glycogen depletion on a low-carbohydrate diet
Summary: On a low-carbohydrate diet, flies experience a reduction in glycogen stores yet increase flight activity without changing rates of glycogen depletion.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Wind and obstacle motion affect honeybee flight strategies in cluttered environments
Summary: To approach moving obstacles, honeybees reduce speeds in still air but increase speeds in wind. To transit obstacles, bees reduce speeds in still air but alter flight paths in wind.
- Stepping pattern changes in the caterpillar Manduca sexta: the effects of orientation and substrate
Highlighted Article: The stepping patterns of Manduca sexta (caterpillars) vary with substrate and orientation, indicating that they can detect and respond to the mechanical properties of the environment with which they interact.
- Swim bladder enhances lagenar sensitivity to sound pressure and higher frequencies in female plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus)
Summary: The presence of a swim bladder enhances lagenar sensitivity to sound pressure and higher frequencies in female plainfin midshipman, which may be adaptive for the detection of behaviorally relevant social signals.
- Plasticity, repeatability and phenotypic correlations of aerobic metabolic traits in a small estuarine fish
Summary: Aerobic metabolism of an ecologically dominant estuarine fish is influenced by acclimation to environmental changes without altering trait repeatability. Furthermore, specific metabolic traits are phenotypically correlated.
- The biomechanics of knuckle-walking: 3-D kinematics of the chimpanzee and macaque wrist, hand and fingers
Highlighted Article: The first 3-D kinematics of the knuckle-walking chimpanzee hand illustrates unique characteristics as well as shared commonalities with digitigrade and palmigrade walking of macaques.
- Reduced lactate dehydrogenase activity in the heart and suppressed sex hormone levels are associated with female-biased mortality during thermal stress in Pacific salmon
Summary: Reduced lactate dehydrogenase activity in the heart and lower circulating sex hormones are linked to female-biased mortality during thermal stress in Pacific salmon.
- Behavioral and physiological evidence that increasing group size ameliorates the impacts of social disturbance
Summary: Social stability is vital for group productivity and long-term persistence. Here, both behavioral and physiological evidence conveys that larger groups are less susceptible to social disturbance.
- Morphology and performance of the ‘trap-jaw’ cheliceral strikes in spiders (Araneae, Mecysmaucheniidae)
Highlighted Article: The ultra-fast cheliceral strike of mecysmaucheniid spiders, the fastest documented movement among arachnids, is achieved via shifts in the shape of external structures and shifts in muscle anatomy towards increased specialization.
- Keep calm and hang on: EMG activation in the forelimb musculature of three-toed sloths (Bradypus variegatus)
Summary: Three-toed sloths minimize activation of their limb muscles while hanging and appear to offset the cost of force production when walking and climbing by preferentially recruiting large, slow-contracting muscle fibers.
- Two chiral types of randomly rotated ommatidia are distributed across the retina of the flathead oak borer Coraebus undatus (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)
Highlighted Article: Jewel beetles have an irregular retinal mosaic of randomly rotated and mirror-symmetric ommatidia, housing at least four spectral classes of photoreceptors.
- Air-entrapping capacity in the hair coverage of Malacosoma castrensis (Lasiocampidae: Lepidoptera) caterpillar: a case study
Summary: An incompressible physical gas gill, stabilized by relatively long and thick setae, is present in terrestrial caterpillars of Malacosoma castrensis, which can survive many hours underwater.
- Path integration error and adaptable search behaviors in a mantis shrimp
Summary: Mantis shrimp use path integration, an error-prone navigational strategy, when traveling home. When path integration fails, mantis shrimp employ a stereotyped yet flexible search pattern to locate their homes.
- Acute and chronic stress prevents responses to pain in zebrafish: evidence for stress-induced analgesia
Summary: Exposure of zebrafish to acute or chronic stress prior to fin clipping prevents behavioural changes normally seen after fin clip; naloxone treatment prevented this effect, demonstrating stress-induced analgesia.
- Thermal tolerance and hypoxia tolerance are associated in blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) neonates
Summary: Thermal tolerance is associated with hypoxia tolerance in blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) neonates. Both tolerance traits change with thermal acclimation, but aerobic scope and growth rates do not.
- Evolutionarily conserved transcription factors drive the oxidative stress response in Drosophila
Summary: A comparative genomics approach reveals conserved transcription factor consensus sites in the p38 MAPK gene family that regulate stress responses in Drosophila.
- The effects of temperature on the defensive strikes of rattlesnakes
Highlighted Article: Viper strike kinematics across a range of ecologically relevant temperatures show that defensive strikes of vipers are affected by temperature, but less than would be expected if the movement was purely muscle-driven.
- Exploratory behaviour, memory and neurogenesis in the social Damaraland mole-rat (Fukomys damarensis)
Summary: Damaraland mole-rat behaviour is modulated by dispersal and dispersal strategy. Non-dispersing mole-rats explore more cautiously; female dispersers approach the learning task differently from males, having a different dispersal strategy.
- Maximum aerodynamic force production by the wandering glider dragonfly (Pantala flavescens, Libellulidae)
Summary: Dragonflies with submaximal loads exhibit unprecedentedly high aerodynamic forces after being dropped in mid-air, descending and then recovering in flight; this behavior represents a new context for evaluating limits to force production by flying animals.
- Route-following ants respond to alterations of the view sequence
Summary: There is a sequence component to route memories in ants, as ants show signs of navigational uncertainty when the familiar sequence of views is suddenly altered.
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.