Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: The miniature robber fly, Holcocephala fusca, watches the sky above for prey with its highly acute eyes. Fabian et al. (jeb243568) tested H. fusca's ability to avoid obstacles during fast predatory aerial interceptions, reconstructing their flight paths using stereo high-frame-rate videography. The robber flies demonstrated an ability to simultaneously process visual expansion of obstacles and motion of targets, combining steering requirements to avoid and hit each, respectively. The robber flies’ behaviour can be explained by feedback control, suggesting that this species does not plan its flight path and that complex navigation problems can be solved through simple visual processing. Photo credit: Samuel T. Fabian.
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INSIDE JEB
REVIEW
Adaptations to a hypoxic lifestyle in naked mole-rats
Summary: Naked mole-rats are among the most hypoxia-tolerant mammals. This Review summarizes the past decade of research exploring the mechanisms of this tolerance.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
The impact of metabolic plasticity on winter energy use models
Summary: Metabolic rate–temperature relationships are plastic in dormant willow beetles, changing through time and in response to temperature acclimation. Incorporating plasticity into energy use models does not improve their accuracy.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Individual variation in natural or manipulated corticosterone does not covary with circulating glucose in a wild bird
Summary: Rapid increases in corticosterone are associated with increased glucose; however, there is no association between the degree of corticosterone and glucose increase in tree swallows.
Receptive field structures for two celestial compass cues at the input stage of the central complex in the locust brain
Summary: GABAergic input neurons to the locust sky compass detect sky polarization and sun position but show poor matched-filter performance, suggesting that faithful heading direction signaling emerges within the central complex.
Spatial perception mediated by insect antennal mechanosensory system
Summary: Crickets acquire spatial information such as shape, location and orientation of objects mediated by their antennal mechanosensory system, and even one antenna provides enough information to change their behavior.
Can temperature-dependent changes in myocardial contractility explain why fish only increase heart rate when exposed to acute warming?
Summary: Myocardial contraction and twitch kinetics provide mechanistic explanations as to why heart rate, but not stroke volume, increases in fish with temperature, and why maximal heart rate is constrained at cool/cold temperatures.
Metabolic trade-offs favor regulated hypothermia and inhibit fever in immune-challenged chicks
Highlighted Article: The thermal response to an immune challenge is tied to metabolic balance in birds. Endotoxin-injected chicks preserve energy, favoring regulated hypothermia and eliminating fever in the case of competing metabolic demands.
Human balance control in 3D running based on virtual pivot point concept
Summary: A bio-inspired balance control strategy for 3D running gait, supported experimentally and numerically with a 3D simulation model.
Changes in apolipoprotein abundance dominate proteome responses to prolonged fasting in elephant seals
Highlighted Article: Proteomic analyses of blubber, muscle and plasma of northern elephant seals reveal changes in abundance of apolipoproteins, adipokines and hepatokines that underlie prolonged fasting.
Bumblebees display characteristics of active vision during robust obstacle avoidance flight
Summary: Analysis of head and thorax movements of bumblebees freely flying in a cluttered environment shows they stabilize their head, which aids in obstacle detection, while their thorax performs evasive roll manoeuvres to avoid collisions.
Sexual inactivation induced by the mucus that covers land snail love darts: sexual selection and evolution of allohormones in hermaphrodites
Summary: Simultaneously hermaphroditic land snails make a mating partner sexually inactive by transferring accessory gland secretions, which should increase male reproductive success.
Resting costs too: the relative importance of active and resting energy expenditure in a sub-arctic seabird
Summary: Measurements of both active and resting energy expenditure in breeding black-legged kittiwakes suggest that chick rearing may not be the costliest breeding stage, highlighting the need to measure both active and resting cost when assessing energy expenditure.
Dynamic body acceleration as a proxy to predict the cost of locomotion in bottlenose dolphins
Summary: By integrating measurements of respirometry and acceleration in experimental swim trials, we demonstrate that acceleration can predict the energetic cost of locomotion in swimming bottlenose dolphins.
An insect antifreeze protein from Anatolica polita enhances the cryoprotection of Xenopus laevis eggs and embryos
Summary:Xenopus laevis eggs and embryos microinjected with an antifreeze protein from the desert beetle Anatolica polita exhibited reduced damage and increased survival after a freeze–thaw cycle.
Pupil dilation and constriction in the skate Leucoraja erinacea in a simulated natural light field
Summary: A recently developed sensory-ecological approach to creating a controlled light environment in the laboratory yields robust behavioural data, providing a detailed account of the skates' pupil changes from near circular under low light to a series of small triangular apertures under bright light.
Avoiding obstacles while intercepting a moving target: a miniature fly's solution
Highlighted Article: Small predatory flies can simultaneously combine information about a moving target and a nearby obstacle to safely navigate to their goal. These flies sum the steering requirements of each task and take an intermediate path, much as humans do.
New funding schemes for junior faculty staff

In celebration of our 100th anniversary, JEB has launched two new grants to support junior faculty staff working in animal comparative physiology and biomechanics who are within five years of setting up their first lab/research group. Check out our ECR Visiting Fellowships and Research Partnership Kickstart Travel Grants.
JEB@100: an interview with Monitoring Editor Stuart Egginton

Stuart Egginton reveals how he overcame the challenges of being a comparative physiologist in a medical school and how he would tell his younger self to trust his instincts when pursuing new ideas.
Travelling Fellowships from JEB

Our Travelling Fellowships offer up to £3,000 to graduate students and post-doctoral researchers wishing to make collaborative visits to other laboratories. Next deadline to apply is 27 October 2023
Feedforward and feedback control in the neuromechanics of vertebrate locomotion

Auke J. Ijspeert and Monica A. Daley provide an overview of key knowledge on feedback and feedforward control gained from comparative vertebrate experiments obtained from neuromechanical simulations and robotic approaches. Read the full Centenary Review Article here.
Light fine-tunes electric fish pulses to keep them in the shade

Weakly electric fish perceive their surroundings through electric chirrups and now Ana Camargo & colleagues have revealed that light fine-tunes the fish's electric pulses to ensure that they remain scheduled beneath the mats of vegetation they use for shelter, avoiding penetrating beams of light that could give them away.