Depending on the species, cicadas spend thirteen or 17 years of their life underground before emerging among billions.
A psychoactive parasitic fungus transforms cicadas into hypersexual “zombies”. Picture: University of West Virginia Source: Supplied
Researchers have discovered a new population of inflamed cicadas with a psychoactive parasitic fungus that turns them into mating-obsessed “zombie” cicadas.
Cicadas, discovered in 3 states of the United States, are inflamed with a fungus known as Massospora, which, according to the researchers, “manipulates male cicadas by flapping their wings like females,” which is “an invitation to mating.”
“Deception” leads men to mate with other male cicadas, which, according to researchers at the University of West Virginia, is helping to spread the fungus.
The fungal spores “gnaw on the genitals, buttocks and stomach of a cicada, replacing them with fungal spores,” said Brian Lovett, co-author of the postdoctoral researcher at Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design. The cicada’s spores “then wear out like a pencil eraser.”
He said the way the virus is transmitted is to rabies, which changes the behavior of the host.
The findings, titled “Behavioral Betrayal: How Some Fungal Parasites Recruit Living Insects to Make Their Offer,” were recently published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.
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The study team said the fungus is similar to rabies. Picture: University of West Virginia Photographic Source: Supplied
The fungus genitals and buttocks of cicadas, replacing them with spores. Picture: University of West Virginia Photographic Source: Supplied
“Essentially, cicadas attract others until they become inflamed because their healthy counterparts are interested in mating,” Lovett said.
“Bioactive compounds can manipulate the insect into waking up and continue to transmit the pathogen longer.”
He said rabies and entomopathogen fungi (insect-destroying parasites) pathogens use their hosts as “active host transmission.”
“When you’re inflamed by rage, you’re aggressive, you’re afraid of water and you don’t swallow,” Lovett said. “The virus is transmitted through saliva and all those symptoms necessarily make it a device that spreads rabies where it is most likely to bite people.
The fungus affects the stomach and genitals of cicadas. Picture: University of West Virginia Source: Supplied
Matthew Kasson, assistant professor and co-author of the studio. Picture: University of West Virginia Photographic Source: Supplied
The cycle of a zombie cicada. Picture: University of West Virginia Source: Supplied
“In this sense, we are all very familiar with the active transmission of guests. Since we are also animals like insects, we like to think that in general we have our decisions and take our free will for granted.
But when these pathogens infect cicadas, it is very transparent that the pathogen pulls the levers of behavior of the cicada to make it do things that are not in the interest of cicada but are in the interest of the pathogen. “
Matthew Kasson, co-author of the paper and associate professor of plant pathology and mycology, discovered last year that the cicada inflamed with Massospora contained psychoactive compounds.
Psychoactive means a chemical that affects the intellectual state or brain of an animal.
“These are zombies in the sense that the fungus controls their bodies,” Professor Kasson said.
Professor Kasson stated that it had already been accepted that cicadas’ nymphs were exposed to Massospora when they were 17 when they emerged from the ground as adults. But the study team now thinks they may be exposed to him as young cicadas when they first enter the ground.
“The fungus can also wait more or less inside its host for the next 17 years until something wakes it up, a hormonal signal, where it would possibly remain inactive and asymptomatic in its cicada host,” Professor Kasson said.