Issues

Summary: A simple hydrodynamic model predicts fin whale rolling performance.

Highlighted Article: Cooperatively breeding chestnut-crowned babblers save considerable energy by group roosting within enclosed nests; this economy helps explain the species' social dynamics and breeding phenology.

Summary: Procellariiform seabirds with different nesting and foraging strategies have also evolved predictable differences in their ability to see their prey or other foraging seabirds.

Summary: Visually guided behaviors operate in closed loop. In crabs, the information of approaching objects is encoded and conveyed by identified giant neurons to continuously regulate the speed of the escape run.

Summary: Kisspeptins are attributed to be key factors in mediating gonadal steroid feedback in mammalian hypothalamus and in the teleost fish sea bass, suggesting that this property is conserved across vertebrates.

Highlighted Article: Ant groups navigate obstacles with a collective strategy that adapts to obstacle difficulty. Groups begin with simple behaviors; if unsuccessful, they switch to robust behaviors that work for more difficult obstacles.

Summary: A novel metric (P_CTmax) is presented for assessing the oxygen sensitivity of upper thermal limits in water-breathing ectotherms based on measurements of critical thermal maxima in marine fishes under hypoxia.

Summary: Flexibility of the 1m-cu resilin joint in bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) wings improves stability in forward flight.

Summary: Changes in energetics related to the migratory cycle span organismal, tissue and molecular endpoints, and these seasonal adjustments involve the PPAR family of nuclear receptors and their target genes.

Highlighted Article: Blade-element analysis and computational fluid dynamics are both effective for analyzing mantis shrimp strike hydrodynamics. Mantis shrimp appendage diversification is strongly impacted by the hydrodynamic consequences of size and kinematics.

Summary: Colorado potato beetles are able to close their subelytral cavity tightly and it then serves as a water-saving device.

Summary: The energetic cost of locomotion in a simulated tunnel exceeds that of overground locomotion in two semi-fossorial mammal species (ferrets and degus).

Summary: The unique signal transduction of the OR complex contributes to insects’ sensitive and efficient olfactory capabilities, supporting the hypothesis that insects evolved a unique chemoreceptor family to accommodate the high-speed demands of flight.

Summary: Within social systems, there are often ‘key’ individuals that are disproportionately active in various tasks; however, the contribution of such individuals may be far from decisive.

Summary: Interactions between the thermal environment, body activity and bimodal respiration show that with rising water temperatures, sea snakes may become more susceptible to fishing-related mortality through reduced apnoeic capacity.

Summary: Nitric oxide contributes to the regulation of ion transport in fish predominantly through the sGC/cGMP pathway and S-nitrosation of transport proteins may be an additional mechanism.

Summary: In complex environments, free-flying honeybees are able to integrate both visual and wind-induced mechano-sensory cues to make decisions in a way that is suggestive of integrative processing by the brain.

Highlighted Article: Desert lizards such as thorny devils harvest moisture from different sources using their skin surface. Moist sand seems to be the most routine water source to meet their water demand.

Summary: New techniques are used to experimentally demonstrate that energy conservation strategies play a key role in brown trout space use.