The respiratory circulation was investigated in air-breathing and waterbreathing Holthuisana transversa von Martens by analysis of the distribution of radioactive microspheres injected into the haemocoel at seven locations. The gills and putative lungs (branchiostegites and membraneous thoracic walls) both trap approximately 90% of the microspheres entrained in their afferent circulations. The main blood supply to the branchiostegites is from the venous sinuses and constitutes a substantial fraction of the total venous return, which is consistent with earlier inferences, based on morphological information, of their possible involvement in gas exchange. In airbreathing crabs, a mechanism exists which directs a greater proportion of the total venous return via the lungs. From the sinus at the base of walking leg 2, the ratio lung: gill flow was estimated as 86.9: 13.1 ± 5.7% in hydrated crabs that had been air-breathing for more than 1 day, and 19.5:80.5 ± 7.12% in water-breathers. A factor in this circulatory switch may be an increase in branchial resistance in air caused by surface tension of water adherent to the gill lamellae. The direct arterial circulation to the gills represents about 3% of cardiac output and is therefore an insignificant component of the total respiratory circulation. Patterns of microsphere distribution among different gills and different regions of the lung provide information on flow patterns within the thoracic sinus. Neither the thoracic sinus as a whole nor the inf rabranchial sinuses can be considered as reservoirs of truly mixed venous blood in H. transversa.
In the field: an interview with Harald Wolf
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In our new Conversation, Harald Wolf talks about his fieldwork experiences working with desert ants in Tunisia to understand their navigation.
Propose a new Workshop
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Our Workshops bring together leading experts and early-career researchers from a range of scientific backgrounds. Applications are now open to propose Workshops for 2024, one of which will be held in a Global South country.
Julian Dow steps down and John Terblanche joins the JEB team
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After 15 years with the journal, Julian Dow from University of Glasgow, UK, is stepping down as a Monitoring Editor. We wish Julian all the best for the future and welcome John Terblanche, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, who is joining the team. Julian talks about his long association with The Company of Biologists and the journal and John tells us about his life and career in this News article.
The capture of crude oil droplets by filter feeders at high and low Reynolds numbers
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Researchers from the University of Montreal, Canada, reveal how tiny filter feeding barnacles and Daphnia entrap and consume minute droplets of crude oil, introducing the pollutant at the bottom of the food chain.
Patterns and processes in amphibious fish
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In their Review, Keegan Lutek, Cassandra Donatelli and Emily Standen discuss the biomechanics and neural control of terrestrial locomotion in amphibious fish. They explore how locomotor mode depends on body shape, physical constraints and phylogeny.
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