Issues

Summary: This article reviews basic acid–base regulatory and neurobiology mechanisms relevant for behavioural alteration in fish exposed to CO₂-induced seawater acidification, and identifies areas for future research.

Highlighted Article: Comparative brain transcriptomics of Polistes paper wasps identifies molecular mechanisms associated with individual facial recognition, which function in neural signaling and signal transduction.

Summary: Anoline lizards communicate with a colorfully patterned throat fan (the dewlap). Limited visual resolution makes fine details of the dewlap pattern visible to conspecifics only from a very short viewing distance.

Highlighted Article: Gecko embryos that experience high temperatures during incubation produce hatchlings with lower thermal tolerance, suggesting that lizards may have limited capacity to adapt to higher nest temperatures.

Summary: Dehydration in Gila monsters did not elevate initial corticosterone, but increased innate immunity and stress reactivity, showing that dehydration may not elicit a hormonal stress response, but enhances physiological defense mechanisms.

Summary: Both plasticity and genetic variation in kidney morphology and candidate gene expression have likely facilitated adaptation to permanent low-salinity residency in threespine stickleback populations from the Baltic Sea.

Summary: Cold stress and food restriction have different effects on innate, cellular and humoral immunity in striped hamsters (Cricetulus barabensis).

Summary: The raccoon dog is a promising model of osteoporosis prevention similar to bears; despite profound catabolism and relative immobility, it does not lose bone density or strength.

Summary: Honey bees employ unique flapping kinematics to use their wings as impellers for ventilatory fanning and dispersing pheromone signals.

Highlighted Article: In Chinook salmon, sperm biomechanics may be driving divergence in competitive reproductive success between alternative reproductive tactics.

Summary: Halteres, specialized fly mechanosensory organs for detecting body rotations, influence visually guided head movements even when flies are flying straight. Removing halteres decreases head movement responses to fast-moving visual stimuli.

Summary: Costs of inflammation, partly mediated by Toll-like receptor expression, are related to range expansion in house sparrows invading Kenya.

Summary: A multifactorial experiment reveals no effect of oxygen on coral photosynthesis and an increase in coral photosynthesis under high flow and a doubled concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide.

Summary: Although it has been hypothesized that nanofibre production in cribellate spiders involves an electrostatic charging of fibres, we refute this hypothesis, proving that spiders use no charge at all.

Editors’ Choice: Gnaphosid spiders utilize sticky, extensible piriform silk to subdue hazardous prey. This derived use of attachment silk comes with strong modifications of the spinning apparatus and reduces the ability to attach structural silk threads.

Summary: Nutrition determines post-maturity molting (PMM) in the orb-web spider Nephila pilipes, suggesting PMM may have evolved as an adaptation to diverse foraging conditions during range expansion.

Summary: Animals are uniquely adapted to sense their environment. Populations of western rainbowfish exhibit habitat-specific specializations of the lateral line system that are likely linked with the animals’ behavioural needs.

Summary: Sustained energy intake in lactating Swiss mice is modulated by both litter size and temperature.

Summary: Results from laboratory and field studies indicate that dehydration enhances aspects of innate immune function in rattlesnakes.