Insects have evolved a variety of behavioral and physiological defense mechanisms to protect themselves against pathogens; antibiotic-producing symbionts, grooming, antibiotic secretions, and immune defenses.

The resin bug, Velinus nodipes, collects the pine resin and puts it on its body surface. This behavior might be an efficient way to fend off infection of bacteria and fungi, because the pine resin contains terpenoid compounds with the antifungal property. However, it is little known that this behavior improves on the survivorship of the bug.

Here, we examined whether the collecting behavior of the resin has a positive effect on the survivorship of the resin bugs exposed to the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana. As a result, it was confirmed that the presence of resin strongly improves the survival of V. nodipes nymphs. This result shows that the resin bug uses the pine resin to protect itself against pathogens.