Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: A simulation illustrating the optical field intensity inside an oil droplet and outer segment of a cone photoreceptor. Wilby and Roberts (pp. 1997–2004) calculated how oil droplets influence the absolute sensitivity of vision. Transparent oil droplets found in the cone photoreceptors of some frogs and toads, as well as birds' ultraviolet-sensitive photoreceptors, focus more light into the cone, improving sensitivity. However, strongly pigmented oil droplets in the other spectral classes of cone photoreceptors in birds and reptiles tune their colour vision at the expense of absolute sensitivity.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
REVIEW
Mechanisms underlying the control of responses to predator odours in aquatic prey
Summary: A review of the mechanisms known to date that mediate the diversity of responses seen in aquatic prey exposed to predator odours and their associated diet cues.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
Sex reversal induces size and performance differences among females of the African pygmy mouse, Mus minutoides
Highlighted Article: Female Mus minutoides sometimes carry a Y chromosome. This chromosomal change is advantageous as sex-reversed females show greater skull size and higher bite force than XX females.
Hearing on the fly: the effects of wing position on noctuid moth hearing
Summary: Noctuid moth wing position affects neural hearing sensitivity. No significant differences in eardrum movement occur; therefore, differences are hypothesized to be due to internal factors such as muscle tension.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
High-speed surface reconstruction of a flying bird using structured light
Summary: Demonstration of a new high-speed structured-light technique that can automatically record the 3D surface of a bird taking off to analyze wing geometry and aerodynamic variables time-resolved.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Disruptive colouration in reef fish: does matching the background reduce predation risk?
Summary: Vertically barred patterns provide protection for prey from visual predators even when they mismatch the spatial frequency of background habitats.
Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes
Summary: An optimized workflow combining light microscopy, electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy reveals previously unknown pigments, pigment-filled organelles and structural colours in spiders.
Functional morphology of tarsal adhesive pads and attachment ability in ticks Ixodes ricinus (Arachnida, Acari, Ixodidae)
Highlighted Article: Ixodes ricinus is equipped with elastic claws and foldable adhesive pads which result in a tarsal attachment of up to 534 times female body mass to smooth surfaces.
Optical influence of oil droplets on cone photoreceptor sensitivity
Summary: Optical simulations reveal how both oil droplets and ellipsoid structures in cone photoreceptors can influence optical sensitivity by collecting or reflecting light. Transparent oil droplets and ellipsoids improve sensitivity, whereas pigmented oil droplets reduce sensitivity.
Flight control of fruit flies: dynamic response to optic flow and headwind
Summary: Measurement and characterisation of the dynamic flight response of fruit flies reveal that their flight controller weighs visual and wind stimuli approximately equally, to produce flight thrust and adjust the pitch of the abdomen.
Effects of temperature and force requirements on muscle work and power output
Summary: The temperature at which a muscle shortens determines how the work, velocity and power of contraction are affected by the force of contraction.
Living with a leaky skin: upregulation of ion transport proteins during sloughing
Highlighted Article: Amphibians maintain internal electrolyte balance through upregulation of cutaneous ion transporters, to compensate for the increased skin ‘leakiness’ that occurs during sloughing.
Ontogeny of bite force in a validated biomechanical model of the American alligator
Summary: A high-fidelity 3D computational model of alligator bite force that can be used for inferring feeding behavior in fossils.
Extreme polarisation sensitivity in the retina of the corn borer moth Ostrinia
Summary: Polarisation vision in the moths is not confined to the dorsal rim area; the retina of Crambid, Noctuid and Saturniid moths and some dung beetles contains distal photoreceptors with extremely high polarisation sensitivity.
Olfactory sensitivity of the marine flatfish Solea senegalensis to conspecific body fluids
Summary: Olfactory sensitivity to conspecific urine and intestinal fluid depends on the sex and maturity of both the donor and receiver in the Senegalese sole, a marine flatfish, which is indicative of pheromonal communication.
Heat-resistant cytosolic malate dehydrogenases (cMDHs) of thermophilic intertidal snails (genus Echinolittorina): protein underpinnings of tolerance to body temperatures reaching 55°C
Highlighted Article: Cytosolic malate dehydrogenases of heat-resistant Echinolittorina snails have the greatest heat stability known for animal orthologs of this protein because of a small number of amino acid substitutions that modify structural flexibility at and around the enzyme's active site.
Escape path complexity and its context dependency in Pacific blue-eyes (Pseudomugil signifer)
Summary: The escape paths of fish are context dependent, showing more unpredictability when attacks come from closer distances.
Muscle–tendon mechanics explain unexpected effects of exoskeleton assistance on metabolic rate during walking
Summary: Lower-limb exoskeletons often produce odd adaptations in humans. Muscle-level mechanics and energetics, estimated in data-driven simulations of exoskeleton-assisted walking, can explain why.
Model-assisted measurements of suspension-feeding flow velocities
Summary: Mya arenaria, Mercenaria mercenaria and Ciona intestinalis exhibit a wide range of suspension feeding rates as demonstrated by a combined experimental and numerical approach to quantifying fluid flows.
Mechanical adaptability of sea cucumber Cuvierian tubules involves a mutable collagenous tissue
Summary: Sea cucumber Cuvierian tubules are a remarkable defence system with characteristics of mutable collagenous tissues, showing initial compliance and subsequent irreversible tensilin-mediated stiffening, which allows them to entangle predators.
Ecology of ontogenetic body-mass scaling of gill surface area in a freshwater crustacean
Summary: Body-mass scaling of gill surface area of an amphipod is shallower in freshwater springs with versus without fish predators, thus matching the scaling of oxygen demand for metabolism and growth.
2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner
The JEB Editors are delighted to announce the shortlisted authors for the 2023 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize. Read the winning paper - Tiny spies: mosquito antennae are sensitive sensors for eavesdropping on frog calls - by Hoover Pantoja-Sanchez and Brian Leavell from Ximena Bernal's lab at Purdue University, USA.
JEB Science Communication Workshop for ECRs
If you’re an early-career researcher interested in science communication and are attending the SEB Annual Conference in Prague this summer, come a day early and join the JEB Editors at a sci comm workshop to learn the key writing skills needed to promote your research to a broad audience beyond your peers (1 July at 14.30-17.30). Places are limited to 24 attendees, and applicants should apply through the SEB registration page by 30 April 2024.
Bridging the gap between controlled conditions and natural habitats in understanding behaviour
Novel technologies enable behavioural experiments with non-model species, in naturalistic habitats and with underexplored behaviours. In their Commentary, Scholz and colleagues discuss how to obtain a deeper understanding of the natural ecology and lifestyle of study animals.
How a macrourid fish remains buoyant at depths it should be unable to reach
Fish with swimbladders should not be capable of descending below 7200m, but when Alan Jamieson and Todd Bond spotted a macrourid fish at 7259m, they knew they had seen something miraculous. Working with Imantes Priede, they reveal that the swimbladder of a 1 kg fish could hold 37.9 g of oxygen, sufficient to offset the weight of the fish's bones, and take 221-440 days to fill, which is plausible because it takes years for the fish to descend to such depths.
ECR Workshop on Positive Peer Review
Are you an ECR looking for tips on how to write concise, astute and useful manuscript reviews? If so, join the JEB Editors at a 2-hour JEB-sponsored Workshop on Positive Peer Review at the Canadian Society of Zoologists annual meeting in Moncton on 9 May 2024 at 13.00-15.00. There are 25 spaces for ECRs and selection is first come, first serve. To sign up, check the ECR Workshop box when you register for the CSZ meeting.