A psychedelic fungus is making cicadas sex crazy while simultaneously causing their genitals to fall off
Billions of the Brood X insects have emerged after 17 years underground
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Your support makes all the difference.It is a mating frenzy 17 years in the making.
In 15 states across the east coast and Midwest Brood X periodical cicadas are emerging from their underground homes to reproduce.
But some of the billions that will tunnel their way out into the sunshine to mate before they die will face a parasitic foe right out of a horror movie
Scientists say a small number of the cicadas will be infected with a fungus that contains the same chemical found in psychedelic mushrooms.
The fungus, which is called Massospora, takes over their bodies and eats away their rear, abdomen and even their genitals.
It also makes the infected cicadas want to mate with both males and females.
Males that are infected will continue to mate with females but also try and attract other males, to spread the fungus to more partners.
“This is stranger than fiction,” Matt Kasson, an associate professor of forest pathology and mycology at West Virginia University, told NPR.
“To have something that’s being manipulated by a fungus, to be hypersexual and to have prolonged stamina and just mate like crazy.”
“It’s sexually transmissible. It’s a failed mating attempt, of course, because there’s no genitalia back there.”
Mr Kasson estimates that 5 per cent of the periodical cicadas get infected with the fungus, but that it does not appear to cause them any pain.
“Everybody’s having a good time while they’re infected,” he added.
“So I don’t imagine there’s much pain, maybe a desire to listen to the Grateful Dead or something like that, but no pain.”
And he added: ”If one of our limbs were taken out or if our stomach was slashed open, we would probably be incapacitated.
“But infected cicadas, despite the fact that a third of their body has fallen off, continue to go about their activities like mating and flying as if nothing happened. This is really, really unique for insect-killing fungi.”
Despite the fungus, Brood X has more than enough numbers to survive.
“There are more cicadas than all the combined predators can eat,” stated the National Parks Service, which lists birds, opossums, raccoons, frogs and other animals as common predators.
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