With the emergence of baby cicadas this summer, scientists have begun collecting specimens of cicadas infected with a mysterious parasitic fungus that takes over the insects and turns them into hypersexual “zombies” that consume amphetamines with the goal of spreading the parasite to other guests.
Matt Kasson, a mycology professor at West Virginia University, told The Associated Press that he traveled to the Morton Arboretum outside Chicago with his 9-year-old son Oliver and graduate student Angie Macias to track cicadas. infected.
The fungus, Massospora cicadina, infects cicadas and turns the back of their bodies into “a chalky mass of spores,” Chicago's Field Museum told Fox News Digital earlier this month.
The fungus takes over the cicada's underparts, removing the genitals and replacing them with what the Field Museum describes as a “fungal plug.” The plug can break during the mating process and the cicada “will fly away raining down spores, further spreading the fungus.”
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The fungus infects cicadas and turns the back of their bodies into a chalky mass of spores. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
When the fungus takes over a cicada, it produces amphetamine (the drug called speed) and is the only fungus on Earth that does so.
Matt Kasson, professor of mycology at West Virginia University, prepares to process a live periodical cicada infected with the fungus Massospora cicadina at Morton Arboretum on Thursday, June 6, 2024 in Lisle, Illinois. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
While infected cicadas are supposed to be rare, Kasson and his small team collected 36 during their brief hunt in the Chicago area. However, people have already sent him about 200 more from all over the country. Kasson is awaiting RNA analysis of the fungus.
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“This was a mycological oddity for a long time,” Kasson told the AP of the mysterious fungus. “It has the largest genome. It produces wild compounds. It keeps the host active, with all these quirks.”
An intact female periodical cicada infected with the fungus Massospora cicadina is visible at Morton Arboretum on Thursday, June 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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Experts say that while the fungus turns cicadas into drug-addicted, sex-crazed “flying salt shakers of death,” it poses no danger to humans or other animals.
Christine Rousselle of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
