Issues

Summary: Ant navigation has traditionally been thought of as an example of how complex behaviour can come from simple mechanisms. We review recent results that show how an ant's navigational mechanisms are more complex than previously thought.

Summary: Biomechanical differences derived from rostrum morphology and composition lead to species-specific feeding behavior in billfishes.

Summary: Peripheral auditory systems of treefrogs are evolutionarily adapted to process the temporal fluctuations inherent in conspecific communication signals.

Highlighted article: How do nervous systems change evolutionarily to generate species-specific behaviors? The simplified male courtship songs of a frog, Xenopus borealis, reflect feminization of the larynx and its connection to the brain.

Summary: Not all cnidarian–dinoflagellate symbioses are equally nutritionally advantageous to the animal as the genetic identity of the symbiont affects the host's feeding capacity.

Summary: Using high-speed 3D videography and a dynamically scaled robotic fly, we studied the biomechanics and aerodynamics of saccadic turns in flying flies. We show that these maneuvers are remarkably stereotypic.

Highlighted article: Six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) analysis of hip–knee–ankle–foot better captures energy changes of the body during gait than conventional 3DOF joint work estimates, revealing increased work contributions from the hip.

Summary: Colonies of relocating ants show remarkable flexibility in their ability to reassess and modify their response when their target nest is changed midway through relocation.

Summary: Muting experiments show that fish sounds are efficient territorial ‘keep-out’ signals, similar to bird song.

Summary: Specialised training in lizards leads to dramatic increases in performance and changes in physiology.

Highlighted article: Orangutans modify the calls they make to predators with their hands. The acoustic effect is that their calls then sound as if they were made by a bigger animal.

Summary: The simple eyes of velvet worms contain only one visual pigment based on onychopsin that detects blue-green light, which the animals actively avoid.

Summary: Reconsolidation occurs after a memory has been activated. We show here that a combination of stressors can block this process.

Highlighted article: Pregnancy depresses metabolic rate in blotched blue tongue lizards and limits exercise ability. Despite the developing fetuses compressing the lungs, gas diffusion ability was not altered.

Summary: This paper details the bigeye vocalisation and the potential detection distances of the vocalisation under different noise regimes.

Summary: Learning context is a key modulator of taste in the honey bee.