Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Action sequence of the medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana, showing its stereotypical arched feeding posture, which was elicited by placing a layer of Parafilm wax on top of a warmed surface. The leech first explores the warmed surface (left), then attaches its sucker (middle) and finally everts its three jaws within its sucker (right). Coordinated pharyngeal pumping movements are eventually elicited, as shown by the body constriction present in the anterior half of the animal (right). Mesce et al. (JEB175687) describe, for the first time in any leech species, the anatomical and physiological aspects of the stomatogastric nervous system that controls feeding-related behaviours. Photo credit: Morgan Newhoff, Joshua Puhl, Anthony Auletta and Karen Mesce.
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INSIDE JEB
OUTSIDE JEB
COMMENTARY
Robotics-inspired biology
Summary: Robotic devices are increasingly generating ideas for experiments on living animals, a new twist on the inspiration that biologists have traditionally taken from mechanical systems.
REVIEW
The tongue as a gripper
Summary: The vertebrate tongue uses unique surface structures and saliva coatings to grip, grab and groom its surrounding environment.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Food consumption increases cell proliferation in the python brain
Highlighted Article: Feeding following a prolonged fast increases cell proliferation in the python brain within 6 days of feeding.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
A new research paradigm for bivariate allometry: combining ANOVA and non-linear regression
Summary: A method for performing the equivalent of an analysis of covariance on bivariate data that are curvilinear on the arithmetic scale.
Measuring metabolic rates of small terrestrial organisms by fluorescence-based closed-system respirometry
Summary: We outline calculations and assumptions to align repeated measures fluorescence closed-system respirometry with the broader respirometry literature. The resulting technology allows the calculation of metabolic rates from very small organisms, including our model system, plant seeds.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Conserved spatio-temporal patterns of suction-feeding flows across aquatic vertebrates: a comparative flow visualization study
Highlighted Article: Flow visualization reveals that suction flow speeds increase with mouth diameter, whereas other flow characteristics remain conserved across aquatic vertebrates. Therefore, trophic diversity is not supported by variation in suction flows.
Photoreceptor specialization and the visuomotor repertoire of the primitive chordate Ciona
Highlighted Article: Ciona larvae looming-object escape behavior and negative phototaxis are mediated by different groups of photoreceptors and involve distinct, but overlapping, visuomotor pathways, and are characterized by circular and straight swim patterns, respectively.
The effect of air resistance on the jump performance of a small parasitoid wasp, Anagyrus pseudococci (Encyrtidae)
Summary: In a small sexually dimorphic parasitoid wasp, smaller males pay a higher penalty of air resistance during take-off jumps. Nevertheless, both sexes achieve outstanding jump heights compared with their body size.
Patterns of mitochondrial membrane remodeling parallel functional adaptations to thermal stress
Summary: Mitochondrial performance and mitochondrial membrane composition are consistent with thermal acclimation and local adaptation effects on whole-organism thermal tolerance and aerobic metabolism in a eurythermal ectotherm.
Biomechanics of omnidirectional strikes in flat spiders
Highlighted Article: Selenopid spiders can attack prey throughout their entire peripheral range, showing a novel hunting behavior with high maneuverability that is generated with effectively controlled reconfigurations of long, laterigrade legs.
Impaired associative learning after chronic exposure to pesticides in young adult honey bees
Highlighted Article: Imidacloprid and glyphosate affect gustatory responsiveness and learning in young honey bees, which show differential sensitivity according to their age, making them successful models for studying pesticide effect on physiology and behaviour.
Fight, fatigue and flight: narrowing of attention to a threat compensates for decreased anti-predator vigilance
Summary: Male fish gradually reduce anti-predator vigilance with increased fight duration, but can maintain greater vigilance for high danger threats than for low danger threats.
High activity before breeding improves reproductive performance by enhancing mitochondrial function and biogenesis
Summary: Female mice that had access to a running wheel before mating had higher mitochondria respiration, biogenesis and reproductive outputs, indicating a positive carry-over effect to reproduction.
Anti-diuretic action of a CAPA neuropeptide against a subset of diuretic hormones in the disease vector Aedes aegypti
Summary: AedaeCAPA-1 inhibits select diuretic factors involved in Malpighian tubule fluid and ion secretion in Aedes aegypti, probably via the second messenger cGMP.
Three-dimensional analysis of the fast-start escape response of the least killifish, Heterandria formosa
Summary: The fast-start response of the least killifish entails a rich three-dimensional kinematic repertoire including complex combinations of roll, pitch and yaw motions.
Emptying and refilling of slime glands in Atlantic (Myxine glutinosa) and Pacific (Eptatretus stoutii) hagfishes
Summary: Hagfishes use slime to defend against gill-breathing predators. Exudate collected from individual slime glands shows that recovery of slime takes 3-4 weeks and its composition changes during refilling.
Thermal analysis of ice and glass transitions in insects that do and do not survive freezing
Highlighted Article: Differential scanning calorimetry analysis of ice fraction dynamics in two drosophilid flies indicates a tight association between proline-induced vitrification and survival of cryopreservation in Chymomyza costata larvae.
Molecular and functional characterization of the Gulf toadfish serotonin transporter SLC6A4
Summary: The toadfish serotonin transporter is highly conserved with that of other teleosts and is ubiquitously expressed in toadfish tissues. Systemic inhibition of the transporter produces dose-dependent elevations in plasma serotonin.
Miniaturisation decreases visual navigational competence in ants
Summary: Reduced spatial resolution affects obstacle detection in ants, supporting the hypothesis that miniaturisation can affect behaviour.
The membrane pacemaker hypothesis: novel tests during the ontogeny of endothermy
Summary: The authors examine how tissue lipid composition changes during development, and how dietary lipid manipulation affects basal and peak metabolic rate, providing mixed support for the membrane pacemaker hypothesis.
The stomatogastric nervous system of the medicinal leech: its anatomy, physiology and associated aminergic neurons
Summary: Blood feeding is a signature activity of the medicinal leech. The presence and characteristics of the stomatogastric nervous system, vital for feeding, are reported here for the first time.
Environmental calcium and variation in yolk sac size influence swimming performance in larval lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens)
Summary: Low environmental calcium concentration and large yolk sac volume reduce spontaneous and sprint swimming performance of fish larvae, assessed in part using a novel methodology to examine volitional swimming performance.
CORRECTION
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.