Issues
-
Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Photopolarimetry – the spatial characterization of polarized light – of the circularly polarized scarab beetle Hemipharis insularis. Traditional photopolarimetry includes multiple panes of false-colour images, obscuring the main trends with overly detailed information. Gagnon and Marshall (pp. 2430–2434) have developed a novel way of presenting the main results from photopolarimetric analyses by superimposing a grid of polarization ellipses onto the image, allowing the polarization state of each cell to be intuitively conveyed to the reader. This method graphically presents circular polarization and ellipticity, does not require multiple panes or colours, and facilitates the correlation between structure and polarization. Photo credit: Yakir Gagnon.
- PDF Icon PDF LinkTable of contents
- PDF Icon PDF LinkIssue info
INSIDE JEB
NEWS
COMMENTARY
Consequences of lost endings: caudal autotomy as a lens for focusing attention on tail function during locomotion
Summary: We develop a framework for thinking about how tail loss can affect fitness through its effects on locomotion, and review results from past studies to inform and support this framework.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
The closed spiracle phase of discontinuous gas exchange predicts diving duration in the grasshopper Paracinema tricolor
Summary: The ability to tolerate periods of spiracular closure in Paracinema tricolor grasshoppers can facilitate predation avoidance via diving or be used for exploiting underwater resources.
Evidence of trapline foraging in honeybees
Summary: Honeybees can learn stable foraging routes, minimising the overall travel distances between multiple flower patches.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
Intuitive representation of photopolarimetric data using the polarization ellipse
Summary: A new and intuitive way to represent polarization in photographs using a grid of polarization ellipses superimposed on the image.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Light and dark adaptation mechanisms in the compound eyes of Myrmecia ants that occupy discrete temporal niches
Highlighted Article: Compound eye properties of sympatric bull ants restrict diurnal animals to bright-lit habitats, but do not restrict crepuscular and nocturnal animals to their dim-lit niches.
Optic flow stabilizes flight in ruby-throated hummingbirds
Summary: Ruby-throated hummingbirds appear to use optic flow to stabilize flight, similar to insects, by rotating with and following projected moving patterns in a flight arena.
Development and deposition of resilin in energy stores for locust jumping
Summary: The amount of resilin deposited in the two energy stores for jumping in the locust changes with the moulting cycle.
Body density and diving gas volume of the northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus)
Summary: Body density and diving gas volume, two important but poorly understood physiological characteristics of beaked whales, are revealed through analysis of hydrodynamic performance during glides.
Telomere dynamics in free-living edible dormice (Glis glis): the impact of hibernation and food supply
Highlighted Article: Telomeres in edible dormice shorten over the hibernation season, but these long-lived rodents are able to fully restore telomeres during summer if food supply is sufficient.
Pigeon navigation: exposure to environmental odours prior to release is sufficient for homeward orientation, but not for homing
Summary: Environmental local odours perceived at the release site are sufficient for pigeons’ homeward orientation, but pigeons can successfully home only if they can rely on olfactory cues during flight beyond the release site.
Metabolic allometric scaling model: combining cellular transportation and heat dissipation constraints
Summary: A predictive metabolic allometric model unites energy costs for transporting substances at a cellular level, discovered to be an important mechanism influencing metabolism of living organisms, with heat dissipation constraints.
Learning through the waste: olfactory cues from the colony refuse influence plant preferences in foraging leaf-cutting ants
Summary: Olfactory cues from the colony refuse influence plant preferences in foraging leaf-cutting ants.
To crash or not to crash: how do hoverflies cope with free-fall situations and weightlessness?
Highlighted Article: The crash-avoidance performance of hoverflies in different visual environments suggests the existence of a multisensory control system based mainly on vision rather than gravity perception.
Hemolymph metabolites and osmolality are tightly linked to cold tolerance of Drosophila species: a comparative study
Summary: Small increases in the abundance of compatible osmolytes improve osmotic balance and cold tolerance in Drosophila.
Drosophila females trade off good nutrition with high-quality oviposition sites when choosing foods
Summary: Flies uncouple feeding and egg-laying decisions to balance their diet and provide a nutritionally optimal environment for their progeny, indicating a certain complexity in the nutritional ecology of parent–offspring interactions.
Differential sex-specific walking kinematics in leghorn chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) selectively bred for different body size
Summary: In two size classes of layer chicken, sexually dimorphic walking kinematics is linked to the differential muscle force, work and power demands of varied visceral and muscle proportions.
Swimming activity and energetic costs of adult lake sturgeon during fishway passage
Highlighted Article: Adult sturgeon energy use during fishway passage reveals location-specific differences in energy use and variable overall net energy costs.
From crypsis to mimicry: changes in colour and the configuration of the visual system during ontogenetic habitat transitions in a coral reef fish
Summary: The dusky dottyback goes through various cryptic stages and modifications of its visual system before turning into one of the most successful fish mimics on tropical coral reefs.
Thyroid hormones correlate with field metabolic rate in ponies, Equus ferus caballus
Summary: Thyroid hormones and energy expenditure are correlated in a semi-free-living ungulate.
Polarization sensitivity in Collembola: an experimental study of polarotaxis in the water-surface-inhabiting springtail Podura aquatica
Summary: In behavioural choice experiments, the water springtail Podura aquatica shows polarotaxis to horizontally polarized light as well as phototaxis.
Celebrating 100 years of discovery

We are proud to be celebrating 100 years of discovery in Journal of Experimental Biology. Visit our centenary webpage to find out more about how we are marking this historic milestone.
Craig Franklin launches our centenary celebrations

Editor-in-Chief Craig Franklin reflects on 100 years of JEB and looks forward to our centenary celebrations, including a supplementary special issue, a new early-career researcher interview series and the launch of our latest funding initiatives.
Looking back on the first issue of JEB

Journal of Experimental Biology launched in 1923 as The British Journal of Experimental Biology. As we celebrate our centenary, we look back at that first issue and the zoologists publishing their work in the new journal.
Webinar: Increasing the visibility and impact of your research
-HUBSwebinar.jpg?versionId=4510)
Would you like to increase the visibility and impact of your research and raise your profile internationally? If so, register for the very practical webinar we are running in association with HUBS on 23 February 2023.
Biology Communication Workshop: Engaging the world in the excitement of research
-BioCommunicationWorkshop.png?versionId=4510)
We are delighted to be sponsoring a Biology Communication Workshop for early-career researchers as part of JEB’s centenary celebrations. The workshop focuses on how to effectively communicate your science to other researchers and the public and takes place the day before the CSZ annual meeting, on 14 May 2023. Find out more and apply here.
Mexican fruit flies wave for distraction

Dinesh Rao and colleagues have discovered that Mexican fruit flies vanish in a blur in the eyes of predatory spiders when they wave their wings at the arachnids, buying the flies time to make their escape.