Issues

Summary: The fascinating hunting behaviour of archerfish is discussed from an ecological perspective.

Summary: Ants show a robust network of food dissemination that is not dependent on the quality of the food.

Summary: Hair bundle mechanoreceptors on sea anemone tentacles are reversibly enhanced in terms of abundance and dimensions with periodic, moderate water flow.

Summary: Repeated treatment of cultured trout cardiac fibroblasts with physiological concentrations of human TGF1-β induces cells to transform into myofibroblasts, as well as stimulating their capacity to turnover extracellular collagen.

Summary: Sleep manipulations specifically alter visual selective attention in fruit flies, without affecting behavioral responses to simple visual stimuli.

Summary: During autumn in central Europe, red underwing and large yellow underwing moths make a southward oriented nocturnal migration, although on foggy evenings, the latter species becomes disoriented.

Summary: The effect of diet on bird fatty acid composition, basal metabolic rate and oxidative damage is dependent on ambient temperature.

Highlighted Article: Pachyrhynchus weevils can exploit their physiological tolerance to seawater and the characteristics of their host plant and the fast-moving Kuroshio ocean current to disperse and colonise isolated islands.

Summary: Identification of diapause-associated metabolic shifts consistent with altered nutrient storage and energy utilization as well as regulatory pathways potentially contributing to developmental arrest in the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus.

Summary: Variability in unraveling behavior of thread skeins from the slime of two species of hagfishes can be explained by differences in the solubility of the glycoprotein adhesive found on the skeins.

Highlighted Article: Bipedal locomotion enhances obstacle negotiation during sprint locomotion via maintaining forward speed and obstacle clearance. Forelimb position helps shift the center of mass to transition to a bipedal posture.

Summary: Changes in mitochondrial capacity, proton leak, uncoupling protein expression and fatty-acid-induced uncoupling with cold acclimation are greater in a putatively cold-adapted northern population of killifish compared with a southern population.

Summary: Irruptive movement-related survival is influenced by an interaction between corticosterone phenotype and environmental stressor pervasiveness.

Summary: Attachment performance of insects on rough surfaces decreases with increasing body size as a result of mechanical constraints on claw design.

Summary: Partitioning between cutaneous and respiratory evaporative water loss is influenced by temperature and hydration state in a terrestrial toad because of the accompanying changes in metabolic rate and skin permeability.

Summary: Exploratory behavior in the Argentine ant is persistent and linked to the expression of the foraging gene. Workers outside the nest are more exploratory than those inside.

Summary: Demonstration of the sub-lethal costs of endo-parasitism for a wild population of seabirds via increased maintenance metabolism.

Summary: Blue-blubber jellyfish have a relatively high propulsive efficiency compared with other swimmers, which they achieve by manipulating the water around them with their flexible bodies.

Summary: A locust motion-sensitive visual neuron responds later to approaches of a three-dimensional sphere than to a two-dimensional disc and tracks expansion of looming objects that speed up or slow down.

Summary: Corals native to highly variable habitats demonstrate greater thermal tolerance than corals from less variable habitats after 36 days of acclimation to thermally stable or variable common garden treatments.

Summary: The echolocating bat encounters echo cascades from objects at different relative positions: data show that the bat's flight guidance is driven by the timing between echoes within cascades.

Summary: During rapid ascending flights, Anna's hummingbirds exert near-maximal power expenditure, and then decelerate by folding their wings over the body to adopt a ballistic posture.

Summary: Time to maximum force in skeletal muscle is shorter at fast versus slow contraction speeds, owing to contractile mechanisms, and in concentric versus isometric or eccentric contractions, owing to neural mechanisms.

Editors' Choice: Macaques prefer grounded running to walking when they move on two legs because of leg compliance.