Nature & Environment
Bugs Fight Off Germs by Sunbathing
Brooke Miller
First Posted: Aug 26, 2012 01:16 PM EDT
While excess of sunbathing for human can be hazardous causing skin cancer and other skin diseases, but a group of bugs stay healthy with this activity of excess exposure to sunlight as this helps them to fight off germs. This study was conducted by the researchers from Simon Fraser University (SFU) that was published in the in the journal Entomologia Experimentalis it Applicata.
According to the new discovery, Western Boxelder Bugs (WBB) that dwells mostly in the regions of western North America is known to group together in sunlight patches during which they release certain chemicals into the surrounding. This strong smelling chemical compound is known as monoterpenes that is triggered when they are exposed to sunlight. This chemical compound encases fungal spores on the insects' body and acts as protective shield for the bugs by killing the germs that reside on their body.
The WBB that is occasionally a household pest, is a patchy orchard pest. They multiply on maple and boxelder trees. They drift in large numbers to orchards during late summer.
"Prophylactic sunbathing defends these bugs against pathogens that they encounter in their shelters," says SFU biology professor Gerhard Gries, who co-authored the paper with colleague Zamir Punja and former graduate student Joseph Schwarz, now working on his PhD in entomology at Washington State University. Gries holds an NSERC-Industrial Chair in Multimodal Animal Communication Ecology at SFU.
"If they are converting the sun's solar energy to fuel chemical work, without the aid of microbial symbionts -- organisms that live together with a host, often to their mutual benefit -- we would consider this a highly remarkable feat in the animal world."
Prior to this, it was thought that this compound played a major role in reproduction or protecting them against predators. On conducting this study, the researchers learnt that this compounds were emitted when bugs were exposed to sunlight and was not used for communication or other purposes.
According to the researchers this phenomena may exist in other insects, but a proper study and analysis is required for that.
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First Posted: Aug 26, 2012 01:16 PM EDT
While excess of sunbathing for human can be hazardous causing skin cancer and other skin diseases, but a group of bugs stay healthy with this activity of excess exposure to sunlight as this helps them to fight off germs. This study was conducted by the researchers from Simon Fraser University (SFU) that was published in the in the journal Entomologia Experimentalis it Applicata.
According to the new discovery, Western Boxelder Bugs (WBB) that dwells mostly in the regions of western North America is known to group together in sunlight patches during which they release certain chemicals into the surrounding. This strong smelling chemical compound is known as monoterpenes that is triggered when they are exposed to sunlight. This chemical compound encases fungal spores on the insects' body and acts as protective shield for the bugs by killing the germs that reside on their body.
The WBB that is occasionally a household pest, is a patchy orchard pest. They multiply on maple and boxelder trees. They drift in large numbers to orchards during late summer.
"Prophylactic sunbathing defends these bugs against pathogens that they encounter in their shelters," says SFU biology professor Gerhard Gries, who co-authored the paper with colleague Zamir Punja and former graduate student Joseph Schwarz, now working on his PhD in entomology at Washington State University. Gries holds an NSERC-Industrial Chair in Multimodal Animal Communication Ecology at SFU.
"If they are converting the sun's solar energy to fuel chemical work, without the aid of microbial symbionts -- organisms that live together with a host, often to their mutual benefit -- we would consider this a highly remarkable feat in the animal world."
Prior to this, it was thought that this compound played a major role in reproduction or protecting them against predators. On conducting this study, the researchers learnt that this compounds were emitted when bugs were exposed to sunlight and was not used for communication or other purposes.
According to the researchers this phenomena may exist in other insects, but a proper study and analysis is required for that.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone