Issues

Summary: The neonicotinoid clothianidin, frequently used as a pesticide in agriculture, interferes with navigation of the solitary bee Osmia cornuta in a laboratory test.

Summary: Lateral lines in the African clawed frog contain melanopsin, suggesting they might be sensitive to light as well as water displacement.

Highlighted Article: The gross mechanics of walking and running children and adults support a new model for the costs dominating level terrestrial locomotion – muscle activation for mechanical work or power.

Summary: The surface of the aquatic bug Aphelocheirus aestivalis is covered with a film of air that acts as a permanent gill and allows this insect to remain under water permanently.

Summary: A 1°C difference in incubation temperature reduces survival, temporarily elevates metabolic rates and adrenocortical responses, and permanently reduces body mass in zebra finches.

Summary: Maximum isometric power and force from skinned and intact muscle fibres (wild rabbits, 25°C) match within experimental error, strengthening confidence in use of skinned fibres when intact fibres cannot be obtained.

Highlighted Article: Vocal differentiation and parallel development between vocal–motor control and saccular sensitivity in toadfish.

Summary: Like mammals, rainbow trout have the impressive capacity to suppress hepatic glucose production completely and to stimulate disposal strongly when coping with a large glucose load.

Summary: Doradid catfish produce complex, species-specific sounds, which probably result from divergent patterns of motorneuron activity.

Summary: Pyrokinins are located throughout the lobster cardiac ganglion, but only one crustacean pyrokinin modulates cardiac activity, suggesting high isoform specificity of the pyrokinin receptor(s) in this tissue.

Summary: Crustaceans typically possess multiple pyrokinins; in the lobster, all isoforms tested similarly activated the gastric mill rhythm, suggesting that the pyrokinin receptor(s) in the stomatogastric nervous system is relatively promiscuous.

Highlighted Article: Chemoreceptors for kairomone perception are localized on the first antennae of Daphnia longicephala and their role in inducible defences contributes greatly to our understanding of the neuronal and developmental mechanisms of predator-induced defences.

Summary: Drosophila melanogaster larvae, which live and feed in severely hypoxic conditions under normal laboratory conditions, show strikingly different behavioral and physiological responses to anoxia from those of adults.

Summary: Mechanical effects of epimuscular myofascial force transmission on the joint moment exerted by rat ankle plantar flexors are not significant.

Summary: During flight, fruit flies track visual features more strongly if they dip below a visual horizon, consistent with using the horizon to judge distance.

Highlighted Article: The largescale foureyes grasps food from the terrestrial ground using a modified version of the picking mechanism of protruding jaw motion described previously for other cyprinodontiform fishes.

Summary: Circadian variation in body temperature is associated with (mimicked) infection; small songbirds may balance fever responses depending on their metabolic status.

Summary: Comparison of the scaling and morphology between surface-dwelling and burrowing earthworm ecotypes suggests that adaptations for burrowing include a disproportionately thin body and strong longitudinal muscles.