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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: A common swift approaching a water surface to drink on the wing. Ruaux et al. (jeb244961 ) analysed how these birds regulate their flight speed during this special behaviour. When gliding down to a water body, swifts accelerate, transforming potential energy into kinetic energy. However, before touching the water, swifts actively dissipate mechanical energy and reduce their flight speed, probably to have a finer control on their trajectory and decrease the risk of falling into the water. This suggests that common swifts, known as extremely efficient flyers, can also prioritize safety over energy savings, when flying close the Earth’s surface. Photo credit: Emmanuel de Margerie.
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INSIDE JEB
EDITORIAL
CONVERSATION
OBITUARY
REVIEW
An ‘instinct for learning’: the learning flights and walks of bees, wasps and ants from the 1850s to now
Summary: Ancient Greek philosophers already recognised insects as intelligent. The more recent discovery of learning flights helps reveal how the interaction between instinctual and learnt behaviours structures this intelligence.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Incubation temperature alters stripe formation and head colouration in American alligator hatchlings and is unaffected by estradiol-induced sex reversal
Summary: Incubation temperature alters the number of stripes on the dorsal surface of alligator hatchlings and changes head pigmentation, with potential implications for hatchling camouflage and thermoregulation.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
The influence of plant odours on sexual readiness in an insectivorous songbird
Summary: Odour from trees infested by caterpillars enhances gonadal development in fast-exploring females of a common insectivorous songbird.
Linking whole-body angular momentum and step placement during perturbed human walking
Summary: Investigation of human walking during perturbations varying in magnitude, direction and timing indicates a significant influence of all three variables on whole-body angular momentum and step placement as well as strong correlations between whole-body angular momentum and step placement in the frontal plane but not the sagittal plane.
Physiological responses to hypoxia are constrained by environmental temperature in heterothermic tenrecs
The metabolic and thermoregulatory responses of Malagasy tenrecs to acute hypoxia and hypercapnia approaches that of ectothermic reptiles.
Prenatal thyroid hormones accelerate postnatal growth and telomere shortening in wild great tits
Summary: Exposure to higher prenatal thyroid hormones can lead to accelerated cellular ageing in wild great tits, measured through telomere length.
Drink safely: common swifts (Apus apus) dissipate mechanical energy to decrease flight speed before touch-and-go drinking
Summary: Common swifts actively dissipate their mechanical energy before touching water when they drink in flight, possibly as a result of a trade-off between energy expenditure and safety.
Neural activation patterns associated with mouthbrooding, maternal care, infanticide and fry release in an African cichlid fish
Summary: The cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni exhibits distinct neural activation patterns in mouthbrooding, maternal care-providing and infanticide-exhibiting females, and in offspring before and after release from the mother's mouth.
A ballistic pollen dispersal strategy based on stylar oscillation of Hypochaeris radicata (Asteraceae)
The pollen-bearing floral parts (styles) of Asteraceae flowers serve as ballistic levers to catapult pollen toward insects within a specific range equal to the size of a flowerhead, minimizing wasteful dispersal.
Fish swimming mode and body morphology affect the energetics of swimming in a wave-surge water flow
Deep-bodied, pectoral fin swimming fish show lower net energetic costs of maneuvering in a bidirectional wave-surge type flow.
Contrasting effects of fungicide and herbicide active ingredients and their formulations on bumblebee learning and behaviour
Summary: The fungicide prothioconazole and herbicide glyphosate at field-realistic doses may not negatively impact olfactory learning ability of bumblebees in a lab setting, but glyphosate may cause changes in bumblebee responsiveness.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
Sensory perception in a changing world – 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 JEB Symposium Sensory Perception in a Changing World and the SEB satellite meeting. Find out more and register to join us in March 2025 in Liverpool, UK. Register by 28 February 2025.
Extraordinary creatures: mantis shrimp
In our new Conversation series focusing on extraordinary creatures, Tom Cronin and Sheila Patek tell us about the incredible biology of mantis shrimp, from their complex vision to their powerful striking abilities.
Behaviour as a physiological process
In this Commentary, Shamil Debaere & colleagues argue the case for integration of behaviour into animal physiology, and advocate for behaviour to be considered as a physiological process.
Tiny ring-necked snakes keep warm heads despite their size
Some ectotherms are able to raise the temperature of certain body parts above the temperature of other regions & now Christian Cox and Albert Chung, with undergraduates from the University of Virginia, reveal that the heads of tiny ring-necked snakes can be 2.1C warmer than their tails, even though they are only 20cm long.
