Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: A female Cape fur seal calling back her pup at Pelican Point, Namibia. In Cape fur seal colonies, which are among the world's largest mammal aggregations, vocalisations allow mother and pup to reunite after a separation and to maintain their bond. Martin et al. (jeb246917) decrypted their vocal signature and showed that both rely on a combination of temporal and frequency features to recognise each other's voice. Coupled with strong abilities to extract signal in the noise, their elaborate vocal signature is a means of securing the recognition and ensuring the young's survival in such highly confusing environments. Photo credit: Mathilde Martin.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
Measurement of microclimates in a warming world: problems and solutions
Summary: Thermal load on a terrestrial animal is determined by its microclimate. We argue that microclimate is quantified best by globe temperature (not air temperature) and by water vapour pressure (not relative humidity).
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Passive elasticity properties of Octopus rubescens arms
Summary: Tensile and rheological tests to assess passive elasticity properties of an octopus arm provide results that are useful for biophysical models with applications in soft robotics.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Femoral bone structure and mechanics at the edge and core of an expanding population of the invasive frog Xenopus laevis
Highlighted Article: Differences of inner structure and bone material properties of frog femora are due to spatial sorting.
Learning performance and GABAergic pathway link to deformed wing virus in the mushroom bodies of naturally infected honey bees
Summary: Description of a virus-associated increase in learning in honey bees and proposal of a mechanism based on GABA to explain the interplay between infection and cognition in the insect brain.
Effects of sublethal methylmercury and food stress on songbird energetic performance: metabolic rates, molt and feather quality
Summary: Songbirds under combined exposure to methylmercury and unpredictable food stress during the breeding season do not appear to experience extra energetic costs, but methylmercury effects on increasing molt duration are concerning.
High sugar diet alters immune function and the gut microbiome in juvenile green iguanas (Iguana iguana)
Summary: A high sugar diet has differential effects on components of the green iguana immune system and alters the gut microbiome.
Altering developmental oxygen exposure influences thermoregulation and flight performance of Manduca sexta
Summary: Chronic developmental exposure of Manduca sexta to hypoxia affects adult metabolic physiology, with potential implications for thermoregulatory and flight behavior.
Tropical and montane Apis cerana show distinct dance–distance calibration curves
Summary: Dance–distance calibration curves of the montane Apis cerana cerana and Apis cerana kashmirensis are shallower than those of the tropical Apis indica, highlighting geographic variation in waggle dance behavior within A. cerana lineages.
Chronic changes in developmental oxygen have little effect on mitochondria and tracheal density in the endothermic moth Manduca sexta
Summary: Chronic developmental exposure of Manduca sexta to different oxygen levels reveals mitochondrial respiration differences but no associated tracheal, mitochondrial or myofiber morphology or density changes.
Use of acoustic signals in Cape fur seal mother–pup reunions: individual signature, signal propagation and pup home range
Highlighted Article: Cape fur seal mother and pup individual signatures rely on a combination of acoustic features, allowing them to reunite after a maternal foraging trip despite short vocalization propagation and long separation distances.
The effects of humidity on thermoregulatory physiology of a small songbird
Highlighted Article: Temperature and humidity interact in complex ways to shape the thermoregulatory responses of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor).
Understanding the influence of context on real-world walking energetics
Summary: Real-world walking speeds across contexts align with energetically optimal speeds determined using gross cost of transport rather than net cost of transport.
Foraging task specialization in honey bees (Apis mellifera): the contribution of floral rewards to the learning performance of pollen and nectar foragers
Summary: Honey bees that specialize in foraging for pollen or nectar differ in their responsiveness to sugar and pollen rewards, leading to inter-individual differences in learning that contribute to task specialization.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
Announcing the 2024 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner
Every year JEB celebrates early-career researchers through the Outstanding Paper Prize. We recognise the shortlisted ECRS that contributed to 11 remarkable studies published in 2024 and congratulate the winner, Elise Laetz, from University of Groningen. See how else JEB supports and promotes ECRs.
Inside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with Hans-Otto Pörtner
During the past two decades, Hans-Otto Pörtner has steered climate change policy as a co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II. He tells us about the experience in this Perspective.
Photosynthesis turns symbiotic sea anemone's tentacles toward sun
Snakelocks sea anemones point their tentacles, packed with symbiotic algae, toward the sun so their lodgers can photosynthesize, and now Vengamanaidu Modepalli & colleagues have discovered that photosynthesis by the algae guides their host's tentacles towards the sun.
History of our journals
As our publisher, The Company of Biologists, turns 100 years old, read about JEB’s history and explore the journey of each of our sister journals: Development, Journal of Cell Science, Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.
