The Insects has been the standard textbook in the field since the first edition published over forty years ago. Building on the strengths of Chapman's original text, this long-awaited 5th edition has been revised and expanded by a team of eminent insect physiologists, bringing it fully up-to-date for the molecular era. The chapters retain the successful structure of the earlier editions, focusing on particular functional systems rather than taxonomic groups and making it easy for students to delve into topics without extensive knowledge of taxonomy. The focus is on form and function, bringing together basic anatomy and physiology and examining how these relate to behaviour. This, combined with nearly 600 clear illustrations, provides a comprehensive understanding of how insects work. Now also featuring a richly illustrated prologue by George McGavin, this is an essential text for students, researchers and applied entomologists alike.

The insects: structure and function.

Mosaic analysis with a repressible cell marker for studies of gene function in neuronal morphogenesis.

The administration of leptin to leptin-deficient humans, and the analogous Lepob/Lepob mice, effectively reduces hyperphagia and obesity. But common obesity is associated with elevated leptin, which suggests that obese humans are resistant to this adipocyte hormone. In addition to regulating long-term energy balance, leptin also rapidly affects neuronal activity. Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and neuropeptide-Y types of neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus are both principal sites of leptin receptor expression and the source of potent neuropeptide modulators, melanocortins and neuropeptide Y, which exert opposing effects on feeding and metabolism. These neurons are therefore ideal for characterizing leptin action and the mechanism of leptin resistance; however, their diffuse distribution makes them difficult to study. Here we report electrophysiological recordings on POMC neurons, which we identified by targeted expression of green fluorescent protein in transgenic mice. Leptin increases the frequency of action potentials in the anorexigenic POMC neurons by two mechanisms: depolarization through a nonspecific cation channel; and reduced inhibition by local orexigenic neuropeptide-Y/GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) neurons. Furthermore, we show that melanocortin peptides have an autoinhibitory effect on this circuit. On the basis of our results, we propose an integrated model of leptin action and neuronal architecture in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus.

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Leptin activates anorexigenic POMC neurons through a neural network in the arcuate nucleus

Recent advances in integrative studies of locomotion have revealed several general principles. Energy storage and exchange mechanisms discovered in walking and running bipeds apply to multilegged locomotion and even to flying and swimming. Nonpropulsive lateral forces can be sizable, but they may benefit stability, maneuverability, or other criteria that become apparent in natural environments. Locomotor control systems combine rapid mechanical preflexes with multimodal sensory feedback and feedforward commands. Muscles have a surprising variety of functions in locomotion, serving as motors, brakes, springs, and struts. Integrative approaches reveal not only how each component within a locomotor system operates but how they function as a collective whole.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/288/5463/100.full.pdf

How Animals Move: An Integrative View

We have developed a method for temporal and regional gene expression targeting (TARGET) in Drosophila and show the simultaneous spatial and temporal rescue of a memory defect. The transient expression of the rutabaga-encoded adenylyl cyclase in the mushroom bodies of the adult brain was necessary and sufficient to rescue the rutabaga memory deficit, which rules out a developmental brain defect in the etiology of this deficit and demonstrates an acute role for rutabaga in memory formation in these neurons. The TARGET system offers general utility in simultaneously addressing issues of when and where gene products are required.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/302/5651/1765.full.pdf

Spatiotemporal rescue of memory dysfunction in Drosophila

not higher than 6.3 mg carbon per gram of organic carbon of the sample (less than 1% of the original carbon atoms). Furthermore the quantity of benzenoid moieties of melanoidins was surprisingly higher than that of natural humic substances which are \"tradit ionally\" claimed to be formed from lignin and related compounds [15]. The 13CN M R studies indicate the presence of significant absorptions in the aromatic region which probably correspond to furanoid and furfural-like structures, to the substituted-hydroxyalkylcyclopentenone (sugar origin) and/or hydroxy-alkylfuranone, as well as certain pyrrole moieties. These products were detected in the Maillard reaction [19], and some also among the pyrolytic products of humics and melanoidins [20]. In spite of some differences in the 13CN M R between melanoidins and humic substances, we believe that the contribution of the melanoidin pathway is more significant than the lignin source [7, 13]. It thus seems that heterocyclic-hydroxy-furanone, pyrrole, furan, and hydroxy-cyclopentenone derivatives are the main building blocks of the polymeric core of humic substances (Fig. l).

Visuo-motor pathways in arthropods

Since the 1970s, human subjects that have undergone corpus callosotomy have provided important insights into neural mechanisms of perception, memory, and cognition. The ability to test the function of each hemisphere independently of the other offers unique advantages for investigating systems that are thought to underlie cognition. However, such approaches have been limited to mammals. Here we describe comparable experiments on an insect brain to demonstrate learning-associated changes within one brain hemisphere. After training one half of their bisected brains, cockroaches learn to extend the antenna supplying that brain hemisphere towards an illuminated diode after this has been paired with an odor stimulus. The antenna supplying the naive hemisphere shows no response. Cockroaches retain this ability for up to 24 h, during which, shortly after training, the mushroom body of the trained hemisphere alone undergoes specific post-translational alterations of microglomerular synaptic complexes in its calyces. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2007.

Learning with half a brain

The origin and extreme diversification of the animal nervous system is a central question in biology. While most of the attention has traditionally been paid to those lineages with highly elaborated nervous systems (e.g. arthropods, vertebrates, annelids), only the study of the vast animal diversity can deliver a comprehensive view of the evolutionary history of this organ system. In this regard, the phylogenetic position and apparently conservative molecular, morphological and embryological features of priapulid worms (Priapulida) place this animal lineage as a key to understanding the evolution of the Ecdysozoa (i.e. arthropods and nematodes). In this study, we characterize the nervous system of the hatching larva and first lorica larva of the priapulid worm Priapulus caudatus by immunolabelling against acetylated and tyrosinated tubulin, pCaMKII, serotonin and FMRFamide. Our results show that a circumoral brain and an unpaired ventral nerve with a caudal ganglion characterize the central nervous system of hatching embryos. After the first moult, the larva attains some adult features: a neck ganglion, an introvert plexus, and conspicuous secondary longitudinal neurites. Our study delivers a neuroanatomical framework for future embryological studies in priapulid worms, and helps illuminate the course of nervous system evolution in the Ecdysozoa.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2015.0050

Nicholas J. Strausfeld

Papers

Visuo-motor pathways in arthropods

Learning with half a brain

The larval nervous system of the penis worm Priapulus caudatus (Ecdysozoa).

Some observations on the sensory organization of the crustaceomorph Waptia fieldensis Walcott

Waptia revisited: Intimations of behaviors.