Issues

Summary: Viscous capture thread extends an orb spider's phenotype as a highly integrated complex of large proteins and small molecules that function as a self-assembling, highly tuned, environmentally responsive, adhesive biomaterial.

Summary: We review key findings on how artificial light at night affects major endocrine axes and suggest future studies that might ameliorate negative effects.

Summary: The mechanical effect of the presence of Schistocephalus solidus parasite on behaviour in its host, the threespine stickleback, is tested using phenotypic engineering.

Summary: Increased α-glycosidase transcription does not occur as house sparrow and zebra finch nestlings age from hatching to adulthood, but does occur when nestlings of the former species adjust to a higher-starch diet.

Summary: Development of a high-frequency acceleration data-logger that can selectively measure animal burst movements, as verified in controlled and in situ conditions with two fish species.

Summary: Two distinct neural coding schemes show how weakly electric fish sensory neurons change response patterns to adapt to context-specific perceptual needs.

Summary: Renoguanylin stimulation radically alters the physiology of Gulf toadfish enterocytes via protein kinase A, by reversing ion-absorbing mechanisms, inhibiting HCO₃⁻ secretion and causing insertion of CFTR into the apical membrane.

Summary: Sleep loss decreases egg output and thus reproductive fitness in female fruit flies, suggesting an important driving force for the evolution of sleep in animals.

Highlighted Article: Male and female sperm-storage organs display different antibacterial activity in ants. This activity varies over time in females after mating, allowing long-term storage of sperm cells free of bacteria.

Highlighted Article: Leaf-cutting ants use specific rather than generalist immune defences in long-term sperm storage organs.

Summary: Fritillary butterflies flying continuously for 3 min suffer oxidative damage to flight muscle lipids; damage varies with Sdhd genotype, but the effect differs for continuous flight versus intermittent flight in nature.

Highlighted Article: Australian parrots from arid environments have a high capacity to utilize evaporative heat dissipation to defend body temperature in hot conditions. Thermal tolerance is similar to that seen in songbirds.

Highlighted Article: Underwater stereovideography detailing the three-dimensional maneuvering performance of the manta ray in its natural environment shows that its turning maneuvers fall within the range of those exhibited by swimmers with rigid bodies.

Highlighted Article: Movement decisions of an insect homing in on plant-borne vibrations are influenced by the complex whirling motion of plant stems.

Summary: Constraints on the activity of auditory receptor cells in moths limits the ability of moth ears to encode information about distance for bats that use short echolocation calls.

Highlighted Article: Curvature in mammalian hairs is underpinned by the relative difference in length between orthocortical and paracortical cells rather than their proportion or number along each side of the fibre.

Summary: A diverse and complex pattern of physiological mechanisms occurs in the Anopheles gambiae s.l. mosquito species and at the population level to cope with the harsh dry season.

Summary: First insight into a marine chelicerate's ammonia and acid-base regulatory strategies as assessed via changes in mRNA expression levels and physiological responses to elevated ambient ammonia and CO₂.

Summary: Previous exposure of insects to low temperatures can mitigate cold-induced ion imbalances and improve chill tolerance. Plasticity of ion and fluid transport across the Malpighian tubule and rectal epithelia probably drive this response.

Summary: Avian evaporative cooling efficiency and heat tolerance display substantial taxonomic variation that are, unexpectedly, not systematically related to the use of panting versus gular flutter processes.

Summary: Brook trout experience a transient reduction in thermal tolerance during salinity acclimation, and improved osmoregulation after cortisol treatment corresponds with improved thermal tolerance.

Summary: Estimates of lipid turnover in songbird flight muscle demonstrate the potential for substantial changes to membrane and intramuscular fuel store fatty acid composition on ecologically relevant time scales.

Summary: Drosophila genes required for the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles (eye pigment granules) also function in the formation of zinc storage granules in the insect's excretory organ, the Malpighian tubules.

Summary: Prior anoxia exposure benefits organismal performance, increases lipid levels and reduces the oxygen debt compared with a singular exposure to anoxia in the Caribbean fruit fly.

Editors' Choice: Direct monitoring of ventilation/spiracle muscle activity, simultaneously with respirometry, reveals two different ventilation motor patterns that could explain the mechanistic basis of discontinuous gas exchange cycles in locusts.

Summary: Carbohydrate–protein interactions enable efficient food particle sorting in bivalves, establishing a new dimension for the role of evolutionarily conserved mannose/glucose-binding proteins in the metazoan.