日光浴可使�q叶槭蝽保持健康

Sunbathing ¹ may be healthy -- at least for one group of North American insects that apparently ² uses the activity to fight off germs, Simon Fraser University scientists have found. Western Boxelder bugs ³ (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 killing ⁴ germs on their bodies., ,Researchers previously ⁵ thought the compounds had a role in reproduction or defending the bugs against predators ⁶. 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 activate ⁷ the biosynthesis（生物合成） of the compounds in the bugs, described as highly gregarious⁸（社交的） creatures. The chemicals then physically ⁹ encase fungal spores ¹⁰ on the bugs' body surface and set off a chain of events that ultimately protect them from germ penetration ¹¹., ,Their findings are published in the August issue of the journal Entomologia Experimentalis it Applicata., ," Prophylactic ¹² 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 ¹³ benefit -- we would consider this a highly remarkable ¹⁴ feat ¹⁵ in the animal world.", ,Gries says while the phenomenon may exist in other insects it has yet to be observed or reported.