Issues

Summary: High pre-adult mortality (60–90%) is ubiquitous but most studies do not acknowledge this or build it into experimental design. In this Commentary, I discuss why we should care more about this.

Summary: Energy dissipation within the insect exoskeleton is an important factor within a range of locomotive behaviors. I provide new mechanical models of this dissipation phenomenon, and methods to simulate them.

Summary: A biophysical model reveals that energy conservation – via electrostatic filament repulsion – explains sarcomere lattice spacing changes, offering the first mechanistic basis for the longstanding constant-volume observation.

Highlighted Article: With CO₂ alone, mosquitos show little attraction to green stimuli (475–575 nm); however, the odors of flowers, vertebrate hosts or oviposition sites can shift these preferences, making these stimuli more attractive.

Summary: Carpenter ants orient towards a beacon depending on substrate conditions. Attraction to the beacon emerges before transfer to adverse substrates such as water and persists after leaving them.

Summary: Exposure to artificial light at night during the developmental period in great tit nestlings causes a decline in body condition but has no clear effect on oxidative stress or feather corticosterone levels.

Summary: Eastern oysters strengthen their shells to reduce predation risk, combining increases to shell hardness and thickness as a strengthening mechanism.

Summary:. Honey bees from diverse landscapes show better learning, while those from high edge density areas perform worse, highlighting the importance of landscape diversity for bee foraging and navigation.

Highlighted Article: A meta-analysis reveals widespread phenotypic plasticity in opsin gene expression among teleost fish and its common drivers, highlighting key future research areas to achieve an integrative understanding of opsin plasticity.