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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: An Argentine ant queen surrounded by workers. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) are an infamous invasive ant species that form supercolonies around the world. In California, one supercolony occupies most of their invasive range and Whyte et. al. (jeb245578) found that this supercolony is better at resisting desiccation than other L. humile in California. The authors suggest this result may be due to their larger body size rather than the waterproofing properties of their cuticular hydrocarbons. Photo credit: Elizabeth Cash.
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INSIDE JEB
PERSPECTIVE
Science communication in experimental biology: experiences and recommendations
Summary: This Perspective presents a description of experiences of a scientist and science writer with recommendations for experimental biologists interested in engaging in science communication.
COMMENTARY
Getting to the heart of anatomical diversity and phenotypic plasticity: fish hearts are an optimal organ model in need of greater mechanistic study
Summary: Cardiac form and function show enormous species diversity and phenotypic plasticity among fishes. Consequently, the fish heart has great potential to mechanistically link organ form and function with their molecular underpinnings.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Locust gut epithelia do not become more permeable to fluorescent dextran and bacteria in the cold
Summary: Molecular probe leaks across gut wall of cold-stressed locusts in vivo, whereas the gut microbiome does not cross the gut epithelium, suggesting that probe breakdown by the microbiome is a cause of leak.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Manduca sexta caterpillars parasitized by the wasp Cotesia congregata stop chewing despite an intact motor system
Summary: A parasitic wasp causes its caterpillar host to stop feeding. It does not damage the caterpillar's motor nerves or muscles used for chewing, but appears to block feeding initiation.
Dynamic defence? Intertidal triplefin species show better maintenance of mitochondrial membrane potential than subtidal species at low oxygen pressures
Summary: Compared with their subtidal counterparts, intertidal hypoxia-tolerant triplefin fish show dynamic oxic–hypoxic adaptions, which allow maintenance of mitochondrial membrane potential at lower oxygen partial pressures.
Intergenerational plasticity to cycling high temperature and hypoxia affects offspring stress responsiveness and tolerance in zebrafish
Summary: Parental exposure to cycles of elevated temperatures and hypoxia confers complex carryover effects that may promote resilience to environmental stressors in larval zebrafish.
The role of body size and cuticular hydrocarbons in the desiccation resistance of invasive Argentine ants (Linepithema humile)
Cuticular hydrocarbons help invasive ants survive desiccation and identify supercolony members. Some supercolonies have greater desiccation resistance, but this is likely due to differences in body size, not cuticular hydrocarbons.
Northern shrimp from multiple origins show similar sensitivity to global change drivers, but different cellular energetic capacity
Summary: Pandalus borealis shrimp from different geographic origins, differing in their environmental regimes, are similarly sensitive but differently vulnerable to rapid ocean global change drivers.
Social experience influences thermal sensitivity: lessons from an amphibious mangrove fish
Social experience affects how fish perceive temperature and causes them to take more thermal risks.
Repetitive nociceptive stimulation elicits complex behavioral changes in Hirudo: evidence of arousal and motivational adaptations
Repeated noxious stimulation of the medicinal leech elicits a transition from reflexive withdrawal to pre-emptive evasion behaviors that is modifiable as a result of differences in internal state or prior injury.
Mapping the nutritional landscape in the yellow mealworm: testing the nutrient-mediated life-history trade-offs
Summary: Nutritional landscape reveals a nutrient-mediated trade-off between key life-history traits and energy storage in the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio molitor.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
CORRECTION
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.
