The musculature of the colleterial glands receives innervation from branch 4B4a of the nerves designated 4B, which arise from the posterior part of the terminal abdominal ganglion in the female cockroach Periplaneta americana (L). Using Methylene Blue staining, the gross anatomy of the colleterial gland innervation has been described. Cobalt backfilling via branch 4B4 of nerve 4B revealed about 21 dorsal unpaired median (DUM) neurones located on both median and posterior parts of the terminal abdominal ganglion. Octopamine immunohistochemistry has shown that at least 15 octopamine-immunoreactive DUM neurones from median and posterior groups projected via branch 4B4a to the left and right colleterial glands. These data, together with results reporting the presence of octopamine-immunoreactive branches supplying these colleterial glands, make octopaminergic DUM neurones suitable candidates to modulate the muscle activity of the colleterial glands in female Periplaneta americana.
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz
Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
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.
Manipulation of mitochondrial function affects red carotenoid metabolism in a marine copepod
Tigriopus californicus copepods with the most powerful mitochondria are the brightest red, providing an honest and direct link between the attractiveness of a creature and their metabolic prowess.
The physiological cost of colour change
In their Review, Ateah Alfakih, Penelope Watt and Nicola Nadeau discuss the energetic cost of colour change and highlight how this can be avoided or lessened in animals that change colour rapidly or slowly.
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