Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: A tawny owl, and its wake revealed by a mist of 0.3 mm helium-filled bubbles. Through tracking 20,000 bubbles, Usherwood et al. (jeb214809) quantified the wakes of gliding raptors and report additional downwash following the tail. This opposes conventional strategies for passive stability or for drag minimisation by aeroplanes. But it does reduce the form of drag associated with viscosity - of greater significance at the sizes and speeds of birds. This points to a potential design guideline for fixed-wing drones: range and endurance could be improved if the tail contributed its share of lift production. Photo credit: Structure and Motion Laboratory, RVC.
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Rapid cold hardening: ecological relevance, physiological mechanisms and new perspectives
Summary: Rapid cold hardening allows ectotherms to quickly enhance their cold tolerance. Here, we review the ecological relevance, underlying mechanisms and future research directions for this important process.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Dust and grit matter: abrasives of different size lead to opposing dental microwear textures in experimentally fed sheep (Ovis aries)
Summary: Dental microwear texture analysis shows the size of abrasives in the herbivore diet has a greater influence on dental microwear than their concentration, with different sizes creating opposing effects in terms of surface roughness.
Specialization for rapid excitation in fast squid tentacle muscle involves action potentials absent in slow arm muscle
Summary: Cross-striated muscle fibers of squid tentacles generate explosive elongation for prey capture through excitation by sodium-based action potentials; the slower obliquely striated arm muscle fibers do not produce action potentials or elongation.
Tracking activity patterns of a multispecies community of gymnotiform weakly electric fish in their neotropical habitat without tagging
Highlighted Article: Detailed movement patterns and complex electrosensory scenes of three species of weakly electric fish were tracked without tagging using a submerged electrode array in a small neotropical stream.
High aerodynamic lift from the tail reduces drag in gliding raptors
Summary: Aerodynamic lift from gliding hawk and owl tails, revealed by tracking helium bubbles, is inconsistent with passive stability or minimizing induced drag, but indicates a role in reducing viscous drag.
A small family business: synergistic and additive effects of the queen and the brood on worker reproduction in a primitively eusocial bee
Summary: Queen and brood exert additive and synergistic effects on worker reproduction, behavior and gene expression in bumble bees.
Experimental evidence for a role of dopamine in avian personality traits
Summary: Exogenous manipulation of the dopaminergic system to test for effects on personality traits in the common waxbill (Estrilda astrild) reveals behavioural differences, some of which are context specific.
Musculoskeletal mass and shape are correlated with competitive ability in male house mice (Mus musculus)
Summary: Male house mice demonstrating high competitive ability possess several musculoskeletal traits hypothesized to improve fighting performance in male–male contests.
Time-critical influences of gestational diet in a seahorse model of male pregnancy
Summary: Food quality has a time-dependent impact on the offspring of male seahorses, revealing new insights into male pregnancy and its potential adaptive importance for syngnathid offspring.
The integration of sensory feedback in the modulation of anuran landing preparation
Summary: Toads, unlike mammals, prioritize non-visual information to coordinate landing preparation.
Induction of vitellogenesis, methyl farnesoate synthesis and ecdysteroidogenesis in two edible crabs by arachidonic acid and prostaglandins
Summary: Induction of vitellogenesis in two edible crabs by administration of arachidonic acid and prostaglandins provides useful information on fecundity for the aquaculture of these species.
Consequences of HSF knockdown on gene expression during the heat shock response in Tigriopus californicus
Summary: In an investigation of its role in the heat shock response of an intertidal copepod, HSF-1 affected a complex gene suite both in response to and independent of heat stress.
Coding of odour and space in the hemimetabolous insect Periplaneta americana
Summary: Selective labelling of the cockroach's antennal lobe output neurons shows that odour responses are stimulus specific and concentration dependent, and preserve information on the spatial structure of the stimulus.
Short-term dehydration influences baseline but not stress-induced corticosterone levels in the house sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Summary: Elevated baseline corticosterone levels induced by water restriction may have critical consequences on several major life-history traits such as energy budget, mobility and potential responses to predators.
Dynamic biosonar adjustment strategies in deep-diving Risso's dolphins driven partly by prey evasion
Summary: Deep-diving Risso's dolphins use multiple biosonar adjustment strategies to balance inspection of complex multi-target environments with more gradual adjustment necessary to capture evasive prey.
The role of attractive and repellent scene memories in ant homing (Myrmecia croslandi)
Editors' Choice: Outdoor experiments with ants on a trackball and agent-based modelling suggest that navigating ants might continuously integrate attractive and repellent visual memories.
Walking kinematics in the polymorphic seed harvester ant Messor barbarus: influence of body size and load carriage
Summary: Scale effect rather than morphological differences explain the variability in load-carrying performance in different-sized individuals in the polymorphic ant species Messor barbarus.
Spectral organization of the compound eye of a migrating nymphalid, the chestnut tiger butterfly Parantica sita
Summary: Eyes of chestnut tiger butterflies have UV-, blue- and green-sensitive cells and they are also polarization sensitive, which may be useful for visual orientation during migration.
Nociceptive neurons respond to multimodal stimuli in Manduca sexta
Summary: Noxious thermal and mechanical stimuli evoke strike behavior in Manduca sexta and both stimuli activate individual nociceptive sensory neurons in the body wall.
Changes in the expression of genes involved in DNA methylation and histone modification in response to daily food availability times in zebra finches: epigenetic implications
Summary: An enforced daily feeding schedule in the long term could serve as a conditioning environment that shapes overall hypothalamic regulation, liver and gonadal functions in diurnal vertebrates at the genetic levels.
Photoperiod modulates the gut microbiome and aggressive behavior in Siberian hamsters
Summary: Sex-specific changes in the gut microbiome are associated with aggression during the non-breeding season in Siberian hamsters, suggesting a potential role for the microbiome in regulating seasonal aggression.
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
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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
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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.