Sunbathing¹ may be healthy -- at least for one group of North American insects that apparently² uses the activity to fight off germs, Simon Fraser University scientists have found. Western Boxelder bugs³ (WBB), found largely in B.C. interior regions, are known to group together in sunlit patches and while there, release monoterpenes, strong-smelling chemical compounds that help protect the bugs by killing⁴ germs on their bodies.

 

Researchers previously⁵ thought the compounds had a role in reproduction or defending the bugs against predators⁶. But their latest study found that the compounds were emitted when the bugs were in sunshine -- in effect, sunbathing -- and weren't used for communication or other purposes.

 

According to the researchers, sunlight appears to activate⁷ the biosynthesis（生物合成） of the compounds in the bugs, described as highly gregarious⁸（社交的） creatures. The chemicals then physically⁹ encase fungal spores¹⁰ on the bugs' body surface and set off a chain of events that ultimately protect them from germ penetration¹¹.

 

Their findings are published in the August issue of the journal Entomologia Experimentalis it Applicata.

 

"Prophylactic¹² 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 mutual¹³ benefit -- we would consider this a highly remarkable¹⁴ feat¹⁵ in the animal world."

 

Gries says while the phenomenon may exist in other insects it has yet to be observed or reported.

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