Issues

Summary: This review highlights the general principles of how animal groups achieve coordinated movement. Differences in the interaction rules of animals within and between species are discussed.

Highlighted Article: Under natural conditions, Wolbachia-infected individuals of the parasitoid wasp Hyposoter horticola experience greater hyperparasitism than uninfected individuals.

Summary: Xenarthrous articulations perform the dual role of stiffening the vertebral column and increasing mobility, resulting in passively stable vertebrae that are capable of substantial bending under appropriate load.

Summary: Insulin improves chemosensory responsiveness of young honeybees, but not their abilities to discriminate odours. Thus, the insulin signalling pathway would be readily mature in young hive bees.

Summary: Increased cardiac filling, as a result of enhanced venous tone, is identified as the underlying cause for the doubled stroke volume after feeding in ball pythons.

Summary: The promoter of a critical metabolic gene is used to investigate why fish increase expression of metabolic genes in response to a decrease in body temperature.

Highlighted Article: Three voltage-gated calcium channel alpha 1 subunit proteins are the channels responsible for depolarization-induced backward swimming in Paramecium tetraurelia. Pawn proteins are crucial in the ciliary localization of these channels.

Summary: The ocelli of the jumping bristletail Machilis hrabei have a reflective tapetum containing xanthine crystals. The screening pigment in the photoreceptor cells migrates behind the tapetum upon dark adaptation.

Summary: Diapause termination in Pieris napi requires chilling, energy is stored for post-diapause purposes and the diapause lipidome is distinct but lacks dynamics during diapause development.

Summary: Respiratory limitations for metabolism appear in the penultimate larval instar but not in the last instar in growing butterfly larvae, supporting oxygen-dependent moult induction in larva-to-larva moults.

Summary: Allelic silencing is not a ubiquitous mechanism to manage an abrupt ploidy and heterozygosity increase in fish, and long-term evolutionary processes have effects on allele expression patterns and on DNA methylation levels.

Summary: Experimental validation supports the use of planar strain theory for predicting bone cross-section longitudinal strains but requires further investigation for its application to shear strains.

Highlighted Article: Female red-backed fairy-wrens express male-typical traits in response to exogenous and endogenous testosterone, including carotenoid-pigmented plumage, darkened bill and an enlarged sperm storage organ, but are constrained in production of melanin-pigmented plumage.

Summary: Fast-start escape trials conducted in flow tanks indicate that fish heading into flow frequently fail to respond when attacked frontally, potentially because mechanical stimuli are masked by flowing water.

Summary: The foot's ground clearance during each swing phase of walking may be explained by competing costs of lifting the foot versus scuffing it on the ground, modulated by movement variability.

Summary: The Arctic fish species Boreogadus saida may be migrating northwards with ocean warming, but can clearly physiologically tolerate temperatures above those of its current habitat.

Highlighted Article: Despite their status as terrestrial insects, pupae of Manduca sexta survived 5 days underwater and showed diverse and unusual patterns of CO₂ emission during recovery.

Summary: When leaving their nest for the first time, Cataglyphis fortis ants perform a sequence of learning walks during which they learn the surrounding landmark panorama with increasing accuracy.

Summary: Wing posture has a greater effect on aerodynamic performance during emulated flapping than during emulated gliding. Extended wing morphology (i.e. emarginate primaries) may be more important during take-off and landing than during gliding.

Summary: Dietary flavonoids, despite their potential antioxidant activity, do not affect redox status in blackbirds; however, flavonoids do promote the development of melanin-rich feathers.

Summary: Frog muscle contractile properties (semimembranosus and plantaris) vary widely across taxa and show correlations to locomotor performance, particularly jumping performance.