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Science

A Fungus Is Pushing Cicada Sex Into Hyperdrive And Leaving Them Dismembered (npr.org) 54

Posted by msmash from the what-in-the-world dept.
After 17 years underground, the Brood X periodical cicadas are slowly emerging in 15 states across the East Coast and Midwest. From a report: They'll shed their skins and spend four to six weeks mating before the females lay eggs and they all die. But some of them are getting wilder in their short lives above ground. A fungus called Massospora, which can produce compounds of cathinone -- an amphetamine -- infects a small number of them and makes them lose control. The fungus takes over their bodies, causing them to lose their lower abdomen and genitals. And it pushes their mating into hyperdrive.

"This is stranger than fiction," Matt Kasson, an associate professor of forest pathology and mycology at West Virginia University, tells NPR's All Things Considered. "To have something that's being manipulated by a fungus, to be hypersexual and to have prolonged stamina and just mate like crazy." Kasson, who has been studying Massospora for about five years, says just before the cicadas rise from the ground, the spores of the fungus start to infect the bug. Once it's above ground and starts to shed its skin to become an adult, its butt falls off. Then a "white plug of fungus" starts to grow in its place.
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A Fungus Is Pushing Cicada Sex Into Hyperdrive And Leaving Them Dismembered More

A Fungus Is Pushing Cicada Sex Into Hyperdrive And Leaving Them Dismembered

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  • "A fungus called Massospora, which can produce compounds of cathinone -- an amphetamine -- infects a small number of them and makes them lose control."

    Now all the druggies are going to be eating random fungus to try to get high.

    • If I was looking to experiment, I'd simply pick up the mangled bugs on the ground and cook them. I already eat insects and I bet grilled cicadas could taste great. Grilled shroom cicadas might add another level of interest - or lend me to the hospital.

      • If I was looking to experiment, I'd simply pick up the mangled bugs on the ground and cook them. I already eat insects and I bet grilled cicadas could taste great. Grilled shroom cicadas might add another level of interest - or lend me to the hospital.

        Yeah, it all sounds good, except the part about your butt falling off.

        But other than that, those side effects sound pretty sweet...for guys.

        • Re:Just great... (Score:5, Funny)

          by PPH ( 736903 ) on Thursday May 20, 2021 @02:47PM (#61404834)

          except the part about your butt falling off

          That would not be good, considering all the working out I do to stay in shape.

          I was talking to a couple of ladies the other day. When I walked away, I heard one say, "Wow! What an ass!"

          So all that gym time must be working.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cito ( 1725214 )

      They gotta be careful, their ass might fall off...

    • Ergot.

    • Not the first time druggies run around trying to collect a specific fungus.

      I remember the good old days when things were civilized. You could go to the liquor store and buy ephedrine pills (mini thins, before they changed the formula several times)

    • Death... by snu-snu!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Now all the druggies are going to be eating random fungus to try to get high.

      Explains why my socks keep disappearing

    • Now all the druggies are going to be eating random fungus to try to get high.

      Naw, they'll just like the butts [youtube.com].

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      It infects the eggs not the adults. They are already infected, it increases the sex drive, because females will not breed, so a healthy male must try to procreate with a female with no genitals, fail and passes the infection onto a healthy female, who passes it on to the eggs when they are produced. Why it is rare, infected females do not reproduce, only uninfected ones can.

  • FTA:

    To have something that's being manipulated by a fungus, to be hypersexual and to have prolonged stamina and just mate like crazy.

    Now I know what parasite my ex is afflicted with.

    • Once it's above ground and starts to shed its skin to become an adult, its butt falls off. Then a "white plug of fungus" starts to grow in its place.

      No question about it.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by CubicleZombie ( 2590497 )

      Now I know what parasite my ex is afflicted with.

      My ex-to-be must be infected with the opposite. No sex drive and an ass that got HUGE.

      But this infection is definitely parasites. Specifically, our children.

    • To have something that's being manipulated by a fungus, to be hypersexual ... and just mate like crazy.

      I have often wondered whether any human venereal diseases did that - and if not, why not? It seems like it would encourage the spread of the disease.

      Now that "butt falls off" thing is a separate issue. But most human venereal diseases do some pretty disgusting damage. It doesn't bother the bug's propagation particularly if it rots out the host substantially AFTER it's spread onward.

  • "its butt falls off." That ought to slow down even a 17-year-old.

  • Massospora Platypediae and Psilocybin (Score:3)

    by zifferent ( 656342 ) on Thursday May 20, 2021 @12:45PM (#61404462)
    Don't forget there's a hallucinogenic variety of this fungus, and perhaps people might find there's crunchy psychedelic nubbins hanging out on trees. https://www.sciencedirect.com/... [sciencedirect.com]

  • There's a fungus among us

  • God damn nature.

    Can you imagine the horror of having part of your body fall off and be replaced by fungus.

    WTF!?!

    God damn nightmare fuel is what that is!

    Like the bug version of Last Of Us!

  • ...fungus start to infect the bug...its butt falls off. Then a "white plug of fungus" starts to grow in its place.

  • Fungus can do some weird stuff (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Thursday May 20, 2021 @01:12PM (#61404574)

    There are other examples of fungus infecting insects, causing them to do freaky-weird things. Probably the most well-known example is the Cordyceps "zombie fungus" that affects ants.

    https://www.nationalgeographic... [nationalgeographic.com]

    Pretty fascinating and creepy at the same time.

  • "To have something that's being manipulated by a fungus, to be hypersexual and to have prolonged stamina and just mate like crazy."

    Back in the day, we called that "high school".

    I kid, I kid...

  • Can this also explain anti-vax behavior in humans? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tap ( 18562 ) on Thursday May 20, 2021 @01:22PM (#61404616) Homepage

    Won't get vaccinated. Won't ware a mask. Gather in large groups. Like fungus controlled cicadas, they're doing everything they can to spread the disease. Maybe a fungus has taken control of their minds too?

    • Maybe a fungus has taken control of their minds too?

      Pretty sure they're blaming it on 5G. Or fluoride. Is "5G fluoride" a thing they're blaming yet? Because if not, they'll land there eventually.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Won't get vaccinated. Won't ware a mask. Gather in large groups. Like fungus controlled cicadas, they're doing everything they can to spread the disease. Maybe a fungus has taken control of their minds too?

      Makes perfect sense, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was a combination of diseases that did this - after all, those things help spread all disease, so its an advantageous mutation.

      After all, the 2020 flu season was a bust because the same measures we did to avoid COVID were the same measures that hel

  • Is Pfizer going to look into this as the next generation of the little blue pill?

    • More like the reverse. According to the summary, it makes them lose their genitals and then go sex mad.. More blue balls than blue pill

    • Only if the people taking it want their genitals to fall off and have a white fungal stump to grow in its place.

      Oh, and have a desire to act like a female to attract some male lovin'.

      But then advertise it on TV during the "midnight monster movie marathon" for $20 and plenty of people will try it.

  • I bow to our fungal-hybrid overlords.

  • News for Nerds? (Score:5, Funny)

    by LatencyKills ( 1213908 ) on Thursday May 20, 2021 @01:40PM (#61404664)
    How is this news for nerds? It involves sex. Nerds know nothing about sex.
  • I'd say the behavior matches that of some of our current, and former, elected "representatives". Mitch McConnell certainly has no testacles.
  • Why shouldn't cicadas have access to same type of drugs and behavior as humans??
  • Talk about your Spanish Fly.

    Ba-dump-dump
  • Maybe we could have given this to Jeffrey Epstein and then chucked him in solitary to face his own bad self?

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