Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Spiders possess a modular visual system. In this picture of a male jumping spider (Leptofreya ambigua), you can clearly see the large anterior median and the slightly smaller anterior lateral eyes (AMEs and ALEs). The two other eye-pairs (posterior median and posterior lateral eyes) are not visible as they are located on the side and back of the prosoma (head), giving the spider an astounding 350°deg field of view! Visual computation is divided into parallel circuits connected to the different eye-pairs: AMEs handle object recognition, all the others handle motion, but De Agrò et al. (jeb247061) show that only ALEs specialize in biological motion perception. Photo credit: Daniela C. Rößler.
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INSIDE JEB
CONVERSATION
PERSPECTIVE
Organisms have gravity: taking an organism-centered approach in experimental biology
Summary: Connecting with our study organisms and conducting organism-centered research is important to scientific discovery, conservation, and the communication and perception of science.
COMMENTARY
Complexity in the timing of the first postnatal ecdysis in snakes
Summary: We consider the complexity of factors that influence the time of the first postnatal ecdysis in snakes, emphasizing the role of phenotypic plasticity and the influence of the physical environment.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Biomechanical properties of non-flight vibrations produced by bees
Highlighted Article: Analysis across 65 bee taxa in three continents indicates that body size is a major determinant of the acceleration amplitude but not the oscillation frequency of non-flight thoracic vibrations.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Tracking lipid synthesis using 2H2O and 2H-NMR spectroscopy in black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae fed with macroalgae
Summary: Delivery of deuterated water coupled with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as a tool for tracing lipid synthesis in an edible insect, the black soldier fly.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
How modularity and heterotrophy complicate the understanding of the causes of thermal performance curves: the case of feeding rate in a filter-feeding animal
Summary: The effect of temperature on individual feeding rate can emerge from the indirect effects on colony composition in modular animals and phytoplankton food quality.
Eye-specific detection and a multi-eye integration model of biological motion perception
Highlighted Article: Jumping spiders discriminate biological from random motion using only one eye pair: a model of how the contribution of different eye specializations may produce emergent and more complex visual abilities is proposed.
Flies on the rise: acclimation effect on mitochondrial oxidation capacity at normal and high temperatures in Drosophila melanogaster
Summary: Mitochondrial metabolism in Drosophila melanogaster is affected by phenotypic plasticity and mechanistically linked to the oxidation of specific substrates at high temperatures.
Sex- and caste-specific developmental responses to juvenile hormone in an ant with maternal caste determination
Highlighted Article: In an ant which exhibits polymorphism in both sexes, juvenile hormone treatment does not affect queen and worker development but leads to increased body size in males.
Early life exposure to queen mandibular pheromone mediates persistent transcriptional changes in the brain of honey bee foragers
Summary: Honey bee workers appear to have a sensitive period during development where exposure to queen pheromones is critical for physiology and subsequent behaviour of mature adults.
Clutter resilience via auditory stream segregation in echolocating greater mouse-eared bats
Summary: When faced with clutter in a phantom echo setup with no spatial release, echolocating bats solve a landing task by performing auditory stream segregation, but show no acoustic adjustments to clutter.
Thermo-physiological changes and reproductive investment in a liolaemid lizard at the extreme of the slow–fast continuum
Summary: An integration of reproductive investment and thermophysiological data to estimate reproductive costs in a semelparous lizard, offering insights into the life-history mechanisms of fast-living lizards.
Strong acclimation effect of temperature and humidity on heat tolerance of the Arctic collembolan Megaphorura arctica
Summary: The heat tolerance of the Arctic collembolan Megaphorura arctica is greatly reduced when acclimated to a combination of high temperatures and mild dehydration stress dependent on acclimation duration.
Biphasic burrowing in Atlantic hagfish (Myxine limosa)
Summary: Atlantic hagfish create U-shaped burrows in gelatin using an internal concertina mechanism.
Individual differences in the boldness of female zebrafish are associated with alterations in serotonin function
Summary: Risk-taking behavior in female, but not male, zebrafish is regulated by the brain serotonergic system.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
PUBLISHER'S NOTES
CORRECTION
Embracing allyship in experimental biology to help close the gender gap
In their Perspective, Janneke Schwaner and Ksenia Keplinger propose 10 useful strategies for experimental biologists at all career stages to become active allies for gender diversity and inclusion and to help close the gender gap in our field.
The Company of Biologists celebrates its first Global South Workshop
In March 2024, Andrea Fuller and Kênia Bicego organised the first Global South (GS) Workshop hosted by The Company of Biologists - How Global South Research Can Shape the Future of Comparative Physiology - bringing together ECRs from the GS and international experts in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Find out about this extraordinary meeting in our Perspective.
High-resolution WildPose 3D scans revolutionise biomechanics in the wild
Collecting detailed kinematics from animals in the wild is a holy grail of biomechanics, and now Naoya Muramatsu and colleagues reveal the extraordinary observations that they have made with their new WildPose wildlife motion capture system in South Africa.
Interviews with Biologists @ 100 conference speakers
Explore our interviews with keynote speakers from the Biologists @ 100 conference, hosted to celebrate our publisher’s 100th anniversary, where we discuss climate change and biodiversity with Hans-Otto Pörtner and Jane Francis, health and disease with Charles Swanton and Sadaf Farooqi, and emerging technologies with Manu Prakash and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz.
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.
