Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: A female Madagascar ground gecko (Paroedura picta). Proximate control of sexual dimorphism in body size in squamate reptiles is still a matter of debate. Based on manipulative growth experiments in the male-larger Madagascar ground gecko, Kubička et al. (pp. 787-795) conclude that the ontogeny of sexual size dimorphism is controlled by ovarian hormones rather than by male gonadal androgens or direct allocation to energetically demanding reproduction in females. The feminization of growth by ovarian hormones can be widespread among squamates, which might explain why sexual size dimorphism is so evolutionarily plastic in this clade. Photo credit: Petr J. Juračka.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
REVIEW
The flexible clock: predictive and reactive homeostasis, energy balance and the circadian regulation of sleep–wake timing
Summary: The daily temporal niche of animals is adaptive and depends on environmental and physiological context.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Onset of fights and mutual assessment in ant founding queens
Summary: Lasius niger ant queens compare their own status of fertility with that of their rivals before deciding whether to engage in lethal interactions.
Escapes in copepods: comparison between myelinate and amyelinate species
Summary: Copepods that possess myelinated axons are better at localizing an abrupt hydromechanical stimulus than those that lack myelin. This advantage might have been a factor in the evolution of myelin.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Estimating monotonic rates from biological data using local linear regression
Summary: The R package LoLinR provides methods to reliably and reproducibly estimate monotonic biological rates from non-linear time series data applicable to many research disciplines in the biological sciences.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Intertidal oysters reach their physiological limit in a future high-CO2 world
Highlighted Article: Intertidal oysters are more vulnerable to ocean acidification than subtidal oysters, and this may limit their vertical distribution.
Different mechanisms of Na+ uptake and ammonia excretion by the gill and yolk sac epithelium of early life stage rainbow trout
Summary: Na+ uptake occurs as Na+/NH4+ exchange by the gills, but not the yolk sac skin, of early life stage rainbow trout, possibly resulting from the lack of the key transporter NHE2 in the yolk sac epithelium.
Ovarian control of growth and sexual size dimorphism in a male-larger gecko
Summary: Sexual size dimorphism in a male-larger lizard is influenced by neither male gonadal androgens nor female reproductive allocation, but instead is controlled by ovarian hormones.
Integrating gastrocnemius force–length properties, in vivo activation and operating lengths reveals how Anolis deal with ecological challenges
Summary: Integration of multiple techniques reveals that incline affects the relationship between muscle activity and potential force and perch diameter impacts the propulsive contribution of the gastrocnemius in Anolis equestris.
Modular control during incline and level walking in humans
Summary: Differences in muscle synergies during incline and level walking provide further evidence of the flexible use of a consistent set of neural elements in human neuromuscular control.
Rats concatenate 22 kHz and 50 kHz calls into a single utterance
Highlighted Article: Rat ultrasonic vocalizations are composed of identifiable vocal motor gestures that are combined and re-combined within a single breath.
Hagfish Houdinis: biomechanics and behavior of squeezing through small openings
Summary: Hagfishes use a variety of techniques to squeeze through tight spaces, which is relevant to their ecological roles as burrowers and scavengers.
Effects of activation on the elastic properties of intact soleus muscles with a deletion in titin
Summary: Rapid unloading of intact wild-type and Ttn mutant soleus muscles indicates that titin, an elastic element within muscle sarcomeres, is activated upon Ca2+ influx in skeletal muscle.
Both thyroid hormone levels and resting metabolic rate decrease in African striped mice when food availability decreases
Summary: Seasonal changes occur in the relationship between thyroid hormone levels and resting metabolic rate in free-living African striped mice: a negative relationship exists in the moist season but not the dry season.
Temperature and photoperiod as environmental cues affect body mass and thermoregulation in Chinese bulbuls, Pycnonotus sinensis
Summary: Chinese bulbuls increase basal thermogenesis in response to colder temperature and shorter photoperiod; increases in mitochondrial state-4 respiration capacity and cytochrome c oxidase activity may play a role in this phenotypic flexibility.
Evolution of vocal patterns: tuning hindbrain circuits during species divergence
Summary: Courtship song dynamics arise from finely tuned motor circuits. Alterations in the activity of a key nucleus of the hindbrain vocal circuit accompany call pattern divergence during speciation in African clawed frogs.
Predator exposure-induced immunosuppression: trade-off, immune redistribution or immune reconfiguration?
Summary: In caterpillars, exposure to a predator induces a change in immune strategy, optimizing immune function according to the physiological state.
Diet-induced co-variation between architectural and physicochemical plasticity in an extended phenotype
Summary: Multiple prey cues induce spiders to alter web architecture and silk properties to plastically switching foraging strategies.
Importance of the antenniform legs, but not vision, for homing by the neotropical whip spider Paraphrynus laevifrons
Summary: Tropical amblypygids inhabit structurally complex habitats, yet navigate home in the dark after a night hunting prey; olfaction appears to be important for navigation.
Strain-specific differences of the effects of stress on memory in Lymnaea
Highlighted Article: There is a ‘cost’ of being ‘smart’ compared with being ‘average’. This cost is an inability to cope with a stressor.
Lactobacillus plantarum favors the early emergence of fit and fertile adult Drosophila upon chronic undernutrition
Summary: Lactobacillus plantarumWJL is beneficial to Drosophila physiology across its entire life cycle, triggering the early emergence and longer survival of fit and fertile adults.
Turning performance of brief squid Lolliguncula brevis during attacks on shrimp and fish
Summary: Squid display differences in attack strategies and use of turning performance measures depending on the type of prey they encounter.
Effect of diet quality and ambient temperature on the use of torpor by two species of neotropical nectar-feeding bats
Summary: Physiological constraints on energy acquisition, body mass and the energetic costs of ambient temperature affect the way that neotropical nectar-feeding bats use torpor as an energy-saving strategy.
Male bumblebees perform learning flights on leaving a flower but not when leaving their nest
Summary: Bumblebee males leave their nest directly, but they perform learning flights when they leave artificial flowers, during which they turn back and fixate the flowers.
Thermal sensitivity of motor control of muscle-powered versus elastically powered tongue projection in salamanders
Summary: Temperature has similar effects on the motor control of feeding mechanisms in salamanders whether powered by muscle or by elastic recoil.
Call for Papers: The Integrative Biology of the Gut. Guest Editors Carol Bucking, Matt Regan and John Terblanche
We are pleased to welcome submissions for our upcoming Special Issue: The Integrative Biology of the Gut . We are calling for forward-looking papers that address the functional roles of the gut. We will consider papers that address gut function from the cellular level to its interactions with other organs and tissues, including its role in diverse ecophysiological processes, spanning both vertebrate and invertebrate species. The deadline for submission to this issue is 1 October 2024.
Extraordinary creatures: notothenioids and icefish
In our new Conversation focusing on extraordinary creatures, Christina Cheng and Kristin O'Brien tell us about the remarkable freeze tolerant nototheniods that live in the waters around Antarctica and how icefish are the only adult vertebrates that survive without haemoglobin.
Why are microclimates essential for predicting climate change responses and how to measure them?
In their Commentary, Duncan Mitchell and colleagues discuss problems with predicting terrestrial animals’ responses to a warming world based on air temperature, rather than the microclimate of their thermal environment. They provide a simple, low-cost approach to microclimate measurements to provide a more realistic assessment of terrestrial animal performance and predicted population responses in hot regions under warming conditions. This approach requires measuring the variables involved in the exchange of heat and water vapour between animals and their environment.
Keeping warm is harder for tree swallows when it’s damp
Damp air often feels chilly and now Cody Porter & co show that tree swallows use 8% more energy when the atmosphere is damp than when it is dry, so they have to work harder to keep warm in damp conditions.
Biologists @ 100 - join us in Liverpool in March 2025
We are excited to invite you to a unique scientific conference, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of The Company of Biologists, and bringing together our different communities. The conference will incorporate the Spring Meetings of the BSCB and the BSDB, the JEB Symposium Sensory Perception in a Changing World and a DMM programme on antimicrobial resistance. Find out more and register your interest to join us in March 2025 in Liverpool, UK.
