Suck On This!: Solar-Powered Sap Suckers…  Hated as voracious pests the world over by farmers and gardeners alike, greenflies, aka aphids, are undeniably a very successful organism. Now too it seems, they may also be a very unique organism, as the first evidence emerges that they may, in fact, be gleaning some of their energy from that big blazing battery in the sky; the sun. Yup, that’s right - seems the darn little things can photosynthesise. Typically only known to occur in plants, algae and certain fungi and bacteria, photosynthesis is basically the process in which light energy from the sun in processed into chemical energy that can then be used to fuel the organism’s activities. Given the high-sugar diet of these sap-sucking scourges, speculation is rife as to why-oh-why?! they would even need this uncanny ability. One possibility put forth by one of the researchers involved in this discovery, Maria Capovilla, is that it might serve as a useful energy back-up system for the greenfly during times of environmental stress, such as when they are migrating to a new host plant. Hmmm…anyone else seeing aphid-fueled bioenergetic solar panels in the not-too-distant future? Watch this space, folks… Read Nature’s news article on this here Photo credit SIMON FRASER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY  
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Suck On This!: Solar-Powered Sap Suckers… 

Hated as voracious pests the world over by farmers and gardeners alike, greenflies, aka aphids, are undeniably a very successful organism. Now too it seems, they may also be a very unique organism, as the first evidence emerges that they may, in fact, be gleaning some of their energy from that big blazing battery in the sky; the sun. Yup, that’s right - seems the darn little things can photosynthesise. Typically only known to occur in plants, algae and certain fungi and bacteria, photosynthesis is basically the process in which light energy from the sun in processed into chemical energy that can then be used to fuel the organism’s activities. Given the high-sugar diet of these sap-sucking scourges, speculation is rife as to why-oh-why?! they would even need this uncanny ability. One possibility put forth by one of the researchers involved in this discovery, Maria Capovilla, is that it might serve as a useful energy back-up system for the greenfly during times of environmental stress, such as when they are migrating to a new host plant.

Hmmm…anyone else seeing aphid-fueled bioenergetic solar panels in the not-too-distant future? Watch this space, folks…

  • Read Nature’s news article on this here
  • Photo credit SIMON FRASER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY  

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