Issues

Summary: Robotic devices are increasingly generating ideas for experiments on living animals, a new twist on the inspiration that biologists have traditionally taken from mechanical systems.

Summary: The vertebrate tongue uses unique surface structures and saliva coatings to grip, grab and groom its surrounding environment.

Highlighted Article: Feeding following a prolonged fast increases cell proliferation in the python brain within 6 days of feeding.

Summary: A method for performing the equivalent of an analysis of covariance on bivariate data that are curvilinear on the arithmetic scale.

Summary: We outline calculations and assumptions to align repeated measures fluorescence closed-system respirometry with the broader respirometry literature. The resulting technology allows the calculation of metabolic rates from very small organisms, including our model system, plant seeds.

Highlighted Article: Flow visualization reveals that suction flow speeds increase with mouth diameter, whereas other flow characteristics remain conserved across aquatic vertebrates. Therefore, trophic diversity is not supported by variation in suction flows.

Highlighted Article: Ciona larvae looming-object escape behavior and negative phototaxis are mediated by different groups of photoreceptors and involve distinct, but overlapping, visuomotor pathways, and are characterized by circular and straight swim patterns, respectively.

Summary: In a small sexually dimorphic parasitoid wasp, smaller males pay a higher penalty of air resistance during take-off jumps. Nevertheless, both sexes achieve outstanding jump heights compared with their body size.

Summary: Mitochondrial performance and mitochondrial membrane composition are consistent with thermal acclimation and local adaptation effects on whole-organism thermal tolerance and aerobic metabolism in a eurythermal ectotherm.

Highlighted Article: Selenopid spiders can attack prey throughout their entire peripheral range, showing a novel hunting behavior with high maneuverability that is generated with effectively controlled reconfigurations of long, laterigrade legs.

Highlighted Article: Imidacloprid and glyphosate affect gustatory responsiveness and learning in young honey bees, which show differential sensitivity according to their age, making them successful models for studying pesticide effect on physiology and behaviour.

Summary: Male fish gradually reduce anti-predator vigilance with increased fight duration, but can maintain greater vigilance for high danger threats than for low danger threats.

Summary: Female mice that had access to a running wheel before mating had higher mitochondria respiration, biogenesis and reproductive outputs, indicating a positive carry-over effect to reproduction.

Summary: AedaeCAPA-1 inhibits select diuretic factors involved in Malpighian tubule fluid and ion secretion in Aedes aegypti, probably via the second messenger cGMP.

Summary: The fast-start response of the least killifish entails a rich three-dimensional kinematic repertoire including complex combinations of roll, pitch and yaw motions.

Summary: Hagfishes use slime to defend against gill-breathing predators. Exudate collected from individual slime glands shows that recovery of slime takes 3-4 weeks and its composition changes during refilling.

Highlighted Article: Differential scanning calorimetry analysis of ice fraction dynamics in two drosophilid flies indicates a tight association between proline-induced vitrification and survival of cryopreservation in Chymomyza costata larvae.

Summary: The toadfish serotonin transporter is highly conserved with that of other teleosts and is ubiquitously expressed in toadfish tissues. Systemic inhibition of the transporter produces dose-dependent elevations in plasma serotonin.

Summary: Reduced spatial resolution affects obstacle detection in ants, supporting the hypothesis that miniaturisation can affect behaviour.

Summary: The authors examine how tissue lipid composition changes during development, and how dietary lipid manipulation affects basal and peak metabolic rate, providing mixed support for the membrane pacemaker hypothesis.

Summary: Blood feeding is a signature activity of the medicinal leech. The presence and characteristics of the stomatogastric nervous system, vital for feeding, are reported here for the first time.

Summary: Low environmental calcium concentration and large yolk sac volume reduce spontaneous and sprint swimming performance of fish larvae, assessed in part using a novel methodology to examine volitional swimming performance.