Issues

Summary: In this Commentary, we argue for the conceptual and methodological integration of behaviour into animal physiology, and advocate for behaviour to be considered as a physiological process.

Summary: Social insect queens reach extraordinary lifespans combined with high fecundity. This seems to be achieved through uncoupling of the conserved molecular pathways that trade-off fecundity against longevity in short-lived solitary insects.

Summary: Adverse ambient temperature and water availability trigger changes to leukocyte counts and stress response, which are not alleviated during prolonged acclimation in an arid-zone passerine.

Summary: The upper thermal tolerance, and metabolic capacity, of schoolmaster snapper are different when resting (inactive) versus when swimming close to their maximum velocity.

Summary: Cricket frogs have been noted to ‘skitter’ or jump on the water surface. This study demonstrates that these frogs are actually moving akin to porpoising, and spend half of the time during this locomotion under the water surface.

Summary: Predatory fish often miss when trying to capture prey. Increased predator–prey distance was the primary driver of failed prey capture attempts in threespine stickleback.

Summary: Quantitative comparison of the 3D geometry of the whisker arrays of harbor seals, Norway rats, and house mice reveals common geometric features across species in different mammalian orders.

Summary: Laser speckle imaging non-invasively quantifies subterranean organism activity by detecting nanometer-scale movements.

Summary: Snakes mount a robust glucocorticoid and hypoglycemic response to an immune challenge while coping with an emerging mycosis and during pregnancy.

Summary: Behavioral monitoring of zebrafish motor activity and histological analysis provide new insights into how social dominance affects the morphological and functional organization of the posterior tubercular nucleus implicated in regulating spinal motor circuits.

Highlighted Article: The neural control of motion freezing is poorly understood. When confronted with looming stimuli, the crab Neohelice granulata freezes as the stimulus increases by 1.4 deg, which is associated with the activity level of MLG1 neurons.

Summary: The kinematics of walking behavior in Drosophila can be decomposed into general aspects of motor output and idiosyncrasies of individual flies.

Summary: Use of activity-specific energy expenditure in free-ranging Peruvian boobies, estimated using doubly labelled water, and accelerometry to validate dynamic body acceleration as a proxy measure for field metabolic rate.

Highlighted Article: Analysis of the immune responses in small-spotted catsharks provides valuable insights into adaptive strategies and likely vulnerabilities of sharks, in a changing ocean, particularly marine heatwaves.

Summary: In the brackish water clam Ruditapes philippinarum, the saccular renal tubule creates the concentration gradient for reabsorbing hypertonic water from the glandular tubule to the haemolymph, and excretes any excess water.

Summary: In vivo strain is a more important determinant of force and work production at faster operating frequencies than timing of activation during ex vivo work loop experiments.