Amplitudes of extracellular action potentials in indirect flight muscles of honeybees and cuculiinid winter moths decline with decreasing muscle temperatures and fall suddenly to zero. Action potential durations increase with amplitude decline. Amplitudes at 11°C are only 20% of values near 30°C in workers of Apis mellifera mellifera. They fall to zero at approx. 10°C. In the cuculiinid winter moth Eupsilia devia, amplitudes at 1°C are approx. 12% of values at 27°C. They fall to zero between 0 and 1°C. The duration of action potentials in bees and cuculiinid winter moths is about 7 ms at 27°C and increases to 52 ms at 11°C in bees and to 66 ms at 1°C in moths. The ratios of action potential rise time to fall time are about 1 at 27°C for bees and moths. They decrease to 0.45 at 11°C in bees and to 0.56 at 1°C in moths. Results suggest that bees can heat flight muscles only if muscle temperatures are above 10°C, whereas cuculiinid winter moths can shiver with muscle temperatures near 0°C.
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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