Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Mantises jump accurately to targets propelled by direct contractions of their limb muscles. To determine what constrains jumping performance using this mechanism, Sutton et al. (pp. 2127-2136) compared data from high-speed videos (1000 frames s−1) of jumps by 5 mg first instar nymphs through all nymphal stages to 1200 mg adults, with predictions of models constrained by energy, power and acceleration. Only the power-limited model explained natural jumping. The image shows an adult praying mantis, Stagmomantis theophila, viewed against a background of selected images from a video of a jumping sixth instar nymph. Photo credit: M. Burrows.
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INSIDE JEB
CLASSICS
COMMENTARY
Novel and potential physiological roles of vacuolar-type H+-ATPase in marine organisms
Summary: Recently discovered physiological roles of the vacuolar-type H+-ATPase include base secretion in shark gills, bone dissolution by Osedax worms and a carbon-concentrating mechanism in corals.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
The thermal dependence of Na+ flux in isolated liver cells from ectotherms and endotherms
Summary: Na+ flux rate across liver cell membranes is compared between mammals (endotherms) and a series of ectotherms with different normal operating body temperatures.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Tracking the kinematics of caudal-oscillatory swimming: a comparison of two on-animal sensing methods
Summary: Two different on-animal sensors that can track biomechanical swimming parameters including changes in gait during cetacean diving, enabling studies of swimming energetics in wild animals.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
How to find home backwards? Locomotion and inter-leg coordination during rearward walking of Cataglyphis fortis desert ants
Highlighted Article: Examination of backward walking Cataglyphis fortis ants reveals remarkable flexibility of inter-leg coordination.
How to find home backwards? Navigation during rearward homing of Cataglyphis fortis desert ants
Highlighted Article: Backward-homing Cataglyphis fortis ants exhibit angular and distance gauging comparable to that of forward-homing ants.
Take-off speed in jumping mantises depends on body size and a power-limited mechanism
Summary: Praying mantises, which use direct muscle contractions to generate jumps, have take-off velocities limited by the amount of power (energy/time) the muscles can produce.
Avian thermoregulation in the heat: evaporative cooling capacity in an archetypal desert specialist, Burchell's sandgrouse (Pterocles burchelli)
Summary: Evaporative cooling in Burchell's sandgrouse, an archetypal arid-adapted bird, is surprisingly inefficient, and suggestive of heavy reliance on respiratory rather than cutaneous heat dissipation.
Avian thermoregulation in the heat: efficient evaporative cooling allows for extreme heat tolerance in four southern hemisphere columbids
Summary: Arid-zone pigeons and doves dissipate heat primarily through cutaneous evaporative pathways, which has minimal metabolic costs, is highly efficient and allows for the defense of a relatively low body temperature under extreme heat conditions.
The behavioral regulation of thirst, water collection and water storage in honey bee colonies
Highlighted Article: When a honey bee colony experiences broodnest hyperthermia, its water collectors quickly spring into action after being begged for fluid.
Basking hamsters reduce resting metabolism, body temperature and energy costs during rewarming from torpor
Summary: Basking substantially modifies thermal energetics in winter-acclimated hamsters, reducing resting body temperature, metabolic rate and rewarming costs. This suggests that this behaviour is of energetic significance not only for desert but also for cold-climate mammals.
Refuging rainbow trout selectively exploit flows behind tandem cylinders
Highlighted Article: Closely spaced structures submerged within a current produce organized flows that encourage refuging in fish.
Counting calories in cormorants: dynamic body acceleration predicts daily energy expenditure measured in pelagic cormorants
Summary: A doubly labelled water method validates the use of dynamic body acceleration in estimating energy expenditure of a foot-propelled diving homeotherm capable of flight in the wild.
Inhibition of the oxidative stress response by heat stress in Caenorhabditis elegans
Summary: In Caenorhabditis elegans exposed to heat stress in combination with oxidative stress, the heat-shock response is prioritized over the oxidative-stress response, leading to a synergistic decrease in survival.
Brood size constrains the development of endothermy in blue tits
Highlighted Article: The development of endothermic heat production in individual blue tit nestlings differs between broods of different sizes.
In situ cardiac perfusion reveals interspecific variation of intraventricular flow separation in reptiles
Summary: Non-crocodilian reptiles have an undivided ventricle, but some (pythons, varanid lizards) robustly separate blood flow, whereas others (turtles, anacondas, bearded dragons) show a large capacity for cardiac shunting.
CORRECTION
Harnessing physiological research for smarter environmental policy

In their Perspective, Alexia Dubuc and colleagues discuss strategies to strengthen collaboration, communication and engagement between physiological researchers and environmental policy makers to ensure that conservation strategies address the threats posed by climate change.
JEB grants to support junior faculty

Learn about the grants that we launched in 2023 to support junior faculty from two of our awardees: Erin Leonard, Early-Career Researcher (ECR) Visiting Fellowship recipient, and Pauline Fleischmann, Research Partnership Kickstart Travel Grant recipient. The next deadline to apply is 28 November 2025.
Early testing could make risky falls a thing of the past for elderly people

Falls cost healthcare systems billions each year, but there may be a solution. Jiaen Wu and colleagues of Stanford University, USA, suggest that measuring the way someone walks before they get old might let doctors know who is at risk for a potentially life-threatening fall in the future.
Ecosystem engineers on tropical reefs in transition

Giant barrel sponges (GSBs) remain robust to rising seawater temperatures and have rapidly populated reefs stripped of coral cover by climate change. GBSs may be poised to become the dominant habitat-forming organisms in tropical reef ecosystems of the future. In this Review, Joseph Pawlik provides an integrative and critical assessment of research on giant barrel sponges.
Fast & Fair peer review

Our sister journal Biology Open has recently launched the next phase of their Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. To learn more about BiO’s progress and future plans, read the Editorial by Daniel Gorelick, or visit the Fast & Fair peer review page.