Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Green iguanas are herbivorous and arboreal lizards with a broad distribution in the Americas. Guagnoni et al. (jeb247105) investigated the cardiometabolic responses of digesting iguanas and their mechanisms of autonomic cardiac control. The study revealed that iguanas experienced a subtle but significant increase in metabolism and heart rate during digestion. Intriguingly, in contrast to other reptiles studied so far, postprandial tachycardia was exclusively regulated by the autonomic nervous system without the involvement of NANC factors, highlighting the need to explore the reasons for their presence during digestion in some animals and their absence in others. Photo credit: Tiago Leite Pezzuti.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
NEWS
COMMENTARY
The buzz within: the role of the gut microbiome in honeybee social behavior
Summary: Using honeybees as a case study, we outline how effects of the microbiome on an individual's neurophysiology scale to influence societal-level dynamics, and discuss evolutionary implications.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
In situ observation of a macrourid fish at 7259 m in the Japan Trench: swimbladder buoyancy at extreme depth
Highlighted Article: The deepest ever observation of a fish with gas-filled buoyancy exhibiting normal behaviour shows that gas secretion and retention function at the extreme hydrostatic pressures of hadal ocean trenches.
Is a blunt sword pointless? Tooth wear impacts puncture performance in Tasmanian devil canines
Summary: Teeth change shape and lose functional features as they wear; quantification of the magnitude and effect of this wear demonstrates that worn canine teeth require more than twice the force to drive into ductile food, and may not puncture the food.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Environmental variation associated with overwintering elicits marked metabolic plasticity in a temperate salmonid, Salvelinus fontinalis
Summary: Food deprivation and frigid temperatures, common winter challenges, elicit tissue-specific energy conservation mechanisms and thermal compensation in brook char. Despite lower resting metabolism during starvation, aerobic metabolic capacity was maintained.
Evidence for individual vocal recognition in a pair-bonding poison frog, Ranitomeya imitator
Summary: Experimental evidence for individual vocal recognition in the context of monogamy in an anuran, offering new insights into how social and communication systems may co-evolve.
Comparative study of spectral sensitivity, irradiance sensitivity, spatial resolution and temporal resolution in the visual systems of Ocypode quadrata and Aratus pisonii
Summary: Different visual systems in the Atlantic ghost crab and mangrove tree crab are intricately adapted to their unique ecological roles and environments.
Low achromatic contrast sensitivity in birds: a common attribute shared by many phylogenetic orders
Summary: Achromatic contrast sensitivity is highly variable between 32 bird species, from 12 phylogenetic orders but contrast sensitivity peaks are always low compared with other vertebrates (except small mammals).
Sex and early-life conditions shape telomere dynamics in an ectotherm
Highlighted Article: Telomere dynamics are strongly sexually dimorphic and influenced by developmental temperature in neonate sand lizards (Lacerta agilis).
Diet influences resource allocation in chemical defence but not melanin synthesis in an aposematic moth
Highlighted Article: In many aposematic species, chemical defences show complex variability. Early-life resources in an aposematic moth affect the variation in the chemical defences but, surprisingly, not in the melanin amount of the wings.
Voltage-gated ion channels are expressed in the Malpighian tubules and anal papillae of the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), and may regulate ion transport during salt and water imbalance
Summary: The excretory function of mosquito ‘kidney’ epithelia, which are non-innervated and non-contractile, can be regulated via voltage-gated ion channels.
Environmental salinity modulates olfactory sensitivity in the euryhaline European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, acclimated to seawater and brackish water
Editors' choice: The peripheral olfactory system of euryhaline fish experiences massive changes in environmental ion concentrations; acute exposure of seabass to freshwater leads to reduced olfactory sensitivity that can be recovered over time.
Differential metabolic responses in bold and shy sea anemones during a simulated heatwave
Summary: Plastic changes in metabolic rates are associated with boldness in beadlet anemones, such that different personalities show opposite metabolic patterns under a simulated heatwave, as compared with a non-stressful temperature.
Multielectrode array use in insect auditory neuroscience to unravel the spatio-temporal response pattern in the prothoracic ganglion of Mecopoda elongata
Summary: Multielectrode recordings were used to characterize the auditory processing in a bushcricket to investigate neuronal processes that may play a crucial role in temporal processing during acoustic communication.
Cardiovascular responses and the role of the neurohumoral cardiac regulation during digestion in the herbivorous lizard Iguana iguana
Summary: In the herbivorous lizard Iguana iguana, digestion induces a subtle cardiovascular adjustment that is mediated exclusively by the autonomic nervous system.
ECR SPOTLIGHTS
CORRECTION
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. Submit your abstract by 17 January 2025. Early-bird registration ends on 17 January 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 Fox 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.
