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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
Using the reactive scope model to redefine social stress in fishes
In their Review, Katie Gilmour and colleagues redefine the ambiguous concept of social stress by using the reactive scope model as a framework to explain the divergent physiological phenotypes of dominant and subordinate fishes.
JEB grants to support junior faculty
Learn about the grants that we launched in 2023 to support junior faculty from two of our awardees: Erin Leonard, Early-Career Researcher (ECR) Visiting Fellowship recipient, and Pauline Fleischmann, Research Partnership Kickstart Travel Grant recipient. The next deadline to apply is 6 June 2025.
Thirteen-lined ground squirrels survive extraordinarily low blood oxygen
Brynne Duffy and colleagues reveal that thirteen-lined ground squirrels are true hypoxia champions surviving extreme low blood oxygen, down to just 34% oxygen, when they emerge briefly from hibernation.
The Company of Biologists Workshops
For the last 15 years, our publisher, The Company of Biologists, has provided an apt environment to inspire biology and support biologists through our Workshops series. Read about the evolution of the Workshop series and revisit JEB's experience with hosting the first Global South Workshop.
Fast & Fair peer review
Our sister journal Biology Open has recently launched the next phase of their Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. To learn more about BiO’s progress and future plans, read the Editorial by Daniel Gorelick, or visit the Fast & Fair peer review page.
