Issues

Summary: Bats and insects are ideal animals for investigating predator–prey interactions, both in real-time and over evolutionary time. Here, we review the evidence for adaptations and counter-adaptations in this system.

Summary: Using the Weibull distribution to model observed animal performance data allows for more robust statistical analyses and estimates of maximum performance.

Summary: Using machine vision algorithms originally developed to understand human actions in videos, we present a framework for automatic detection of feeding attempts of larval fishes, a fitness-determining behavior that is sparse and unpredictable in space and time.

Summary: Validation of the use of accelerometers for automated collection of behavioral data from two species of small-bodied, free-living animals.

Highlighted Article: Metabolic investment into movement of animals changes with environmental novelty, thereby altering the metabolic dimension of ecological function.

Summary: The two enantiomers of the black garden ant queen pheromone 3-methylhentriacontane are both effective in suppressing worker ovarian development but the (S)-enantiomer more effectively reduces aggressive behavior.

Summary: Take-off jumps send whiteflies into the air rotating forward. Air resistance on the wings, in resting position, slows down and even stops the rotation of the body, prior to wing deployment and flapping.

Summary: Juvenile and adult tegus exhibit different anti-predatory strategies at 22.5°C, which can be explained by differences in body size, limb proportions, jaw length and muscle biochemistry.

Highlighted Article: Mitochondrial reorganization during hypoxia–reoxygenation stress modulates oxidative phosphorylation capacity in a way that correlates with hypoxia tolerance in marine molluscs.

Summary: Seasonal variation in desiccation tolerance of malaria mosquitoes is shaped by cuticular hydrocarbon composition and quantity and possibly by smaller spiracles. Seasonal allometries indicate season-specific developmental programs, consistent with aestivation.

Summary: Ants can hold direction relative to a single shape in a panorama by learning the position of the shape's centre of mass on its retina when heading in the correct direction and thereafter keeping the shape's centre of mass in that desired retinal position.

Summary: Assessment of a clonal gradient of Daphnia reveals a high correlation between chitin deacetylase gene expression and neck-teeth induction.

Highlighted Article: An integrative approach to assess the impact of elevated water temperature on fishes of immediate conservation concern highlights the vulnerability of longfin smelt relative to delta smelt.

Summary: Antarctic crustaceans use a geomagnetic compass for orientation on the sea–land axis. This ability is lost after exposure to extraordinarily weak radiofrequency magnetic fields (2 nT).

Summary: Juvenile little skates from neighboring locations, developmentally acclimatized to varying levels of ocean acidification and warming, exhibit substantial differences in escape and aerobic performance.

Summary: Maternal social status influences development of the stress axis and programmed stress axis function during early development in zebrafish.

Highlighted Article: Monkeys reliably vocalize on command during juvenile periods, but discontinue this behavior in adulthood. This greater vocal flexibility of monkeys early in ontogeny supports the neoteny hypothesis in human evolution.

Summary: The presence and activity of glucokinase-independent glucosensing mechanisms in fish brain regions provide new and relevant information regarding metabolic regulation of food intake and counter-regulatory mechanisms to restore plasma levels of metabolites in fish.

Summary: Proprioception plays a key role in the success of long-term recovery of unbiased walking behavior after leg amputation in Drosophila melanogaster.