Issues

Summary: This Commentary discusses the sources of within-individual behavioural variability in social insects and considers the relationship between colony size and behavioural flexibility.

Summary: Shark gill acid–base regulatory cells contain large intracellular glycogen stores that are differentially utilized and replenished during acid–base stress.

Summary: Fruit flies integrate diverse olfactory and gustatory cues to guide feeding decisions, including situations in which animals are confronted with stimuli of opposite valence.

Summary: Eccentric resistance training and HMB-FA supplementation may induce crosstalk between peptide release from other tissues and increase maximal muscle strength; the combination of the two interventions has a greater effect than either does alone.

Summary: Honeybees solve cross-modal positive- and negative-patterning experiments with olfactory–visual compounds. These interactions are wavelength dependent, supporting a distinct processing pathway for UV compared with other wavelengths.

Highlighted Article: To compensate for the detrimental aerodynamic effect of wing molt on flight, upward escaping pied flycatchers reduce the molt gap size and increase the angle of attack of the wing.

Highlighted Article: Nematodal infection and fungal infection cause changes in insect vitellogenin mRNA and protein expression: vitellogenin inhibits the growth of entomotoxic bacteria from the nematode Steinernema carpocapsae.

Summary: Evidence that goats adjust the stiffness of their hindlimbs when walking on hard and soft surfaces, shedding light on their ability to thrive in variable environments.

Summary: The neuropeptide RhoprCCHamide2 has a dual diuretic effect, enhancing the serotonin-induced secretion by Malpighian tubules, and inhibiting serotonin-induced absorption across the anterior midgut in Rhodnius prolixus.

Summary: Estuarine diamondback terrapins maintain osmotic balance under variable salinity conditions by using energetically efficient behavioral adjustments and water conservation strategies.

Summary: Modifications of the brain can occur as a form of adaptation to environmental conditions. Environmental enrichment was found to influence relative brain size in guppies.

Summary: Developmental acclimation does not necessarily enhance reproductive fitness in Drosophila melanogaster; instead, the highest fitness is achieved by development at an optimal temperature.

Summary: An inverse Ramsay assay and electrophysiology demonstrate that the eversible vesicles in the collophore of springtails absorb water and transport Na⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, H⁺ and NH₄⁺.

Summary: Morphological and histological investigation, in conjunction with feeding experiments using fluorescent microbeads, reveals the size exclusion limit of the gastric sieve of penaeid shrimp to be substantially less than 1 µm.

Summary: Conventional microelectrodes and cable analysis yield first measurements of electrical resistance in Drosophila melanogaster Malpighian tubules.

Summary: Developmental stress has negative effects on pied flycatcher offspring growth and physiology, but may have short-term benefits on performance by enhancing antipredator behaviour.

Summary: A gut microbiota transfer influences emotional reactivity in Japanese quails, supporting the existence of a microbiota–gut–brain axis in birds.

Summary: Two Δ12-desaturases from the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis synthesise linoleic acid. One is expressed in the male rectal vesicle where they produce a sex pheromone from linoleic acid.

Summary: Hypoxia during embryonic development induces parabronchial remodeling in chicks, favoring structures involved in gas exchange (air and blood capillaries) at the expense of air-conducting structures (parabronchial lumen and atria).

Summary: The intrauterine environment impacts the lifetime health of offspring; an animal model of maternal physical activity during pregnancy shows major modifications in offspring liver and muscle mitochondria.

Summary: Vitamin E and corticosterone apparently have antagonistic effects on body growth in yellow-legged gull embryos but vitamin E is not limiting.

Highlighted Article: Caffeine does not cause Plebeia droryana to increase foraging frequency, recruitment and persistence; instead, higher sugar concentrations cause bees to increase foraging effort.

Editors' Choice: Reduced oxygen availability decreases retinal sensitivity and temporal resolution in marine invertebrate larvae, which may impact visual behaviors crucial to survival and increase vulnerability of species to ocean oxygen loss.