Issues

Summary: Bringing JEB's Centenary year to a close, in this Commentary, the editors of JEB discuss their views of the most pressing challenges and exciting opportunities for the future of experimental biology.

Summary: The field of nutritional immunology captures the complexity of the connections between the nutritional environment, infection and immunity. Here, we discuss recent research that links the nutritional environment with insect health.

Summary: Body size alone imposes constraints on animal structure and function that critically transcend phylogeny. What lessons do they teach us?

Summary: Elephant seals may regulate the responsiveness of their tissues to cortisol in response to acute stress during prolonged fasting.

Summary: Experimental findings refute the hypothesis of a temperature-dependent increase in the oxygen-mediated respiratory drive and indicate CO₂ level as the major ventilation determinant, regardless of temperature, in ectothermic tetrapods.

Summary: The sessile tunicate Botryllus schlosseri is remarkably resilient to applied loads, which we attribute to the dynamic mechanical properties of the tunic that encases it.

Summary: An approach through which to integrate activity-specific energetic costs with time–budget data and morphological information to estimate the energy expenditure of any marine bird population.

Summary: Comparison of four common body temperature measurement methods shows that none of them affect metabolic rate compared with controls in great tits.

Summary: A chemical defense molecule, formoside, is localized to taste buds, olfactory tissue and neuromasts of larval zebrafish, used as a model fish predator.

Summary: Eurasian tree sparrows can increase lift-loading capacity and maintain optimum flight performance by altering flight kinematics and postures in response to moderate mass loss.

Highlighted Article: The unique acoustic behavior of the frog-biting mosquito Uranotaenia lowii: intriguing insights into how these tiny spies eavesdrop on frog communication.

Editors' choice: Prokinesis in rosy-faced lovebirds adapts for climbing and feeding, with the mandible and maxilla serving distinct roles in force-generating capabilities.

Summary: Physiological, anatomical and molecular evidence of extensive visual system variation within a diverse butterfly radiation, hinting at the lability of visual systems to evolve specialisations to distinct visual environments.

Summary: No trade-off is observed between locomotor performance in different media or between exertion and burst capacity in a largely aquatic frog. Nonetheless, morphological traits contribute differently to performance depending on the environment.

Highlighted Article: Kidneys, gluteus maximus and body mass are key predictors of metabolism and burst performance that may drive the invasion of marsh frogs, while endurance was poorly described by anatomical predictors.