By Carol Clark
The squash bug carries a gut bacterium that is essential for the bug’s development into an adult. But when they hatch from their eggs, squash bug nymphs do not have the bacteria in their systems. That left scientists who study the interplay between insects and their internal microbes wondering: How do the nymphs acquire these essential microbes?
Jason Chen, an Emory University graduate student in the Department of Biology, stumbled upon a clue one evening in the lab.
He had finished up experiments on some adult squash bugs whose Caballeronia bacteria he had tagged with a red fluorescent protein. The bugs were housed in a plastic box with pieces of paper towel inside as bedding. He tossed some nymphs inside the container just as a place to hold them while he cleaned up for the day.
“When I came back to turn the lights out, I noticed that all the nymphs had flocked around one of the poop spots left on a paper towel by the adults,” Chen says. “Normally nymphs wander around a lot but they had all stopped around this poop. They were transfixed by it. I wondered what that behavior meant.”
He eventually checked the nymphs under a microscope and saw that their guts lit up with the same red fluorescence as the adults. More experiments confirmed the finding — nymph squash bugs eat the feces of adults to acquire the bacteria they need to grow.
Current Biology published the discovery, which may offer insights for improved methods to control the squash bug, a significant agricultural pest.
Read more about the discovery here.
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