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.
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.