May 22, 2021 10:20 PM
https://www.livescience.com/brood-x-cica...butts.html
INTRO: All Brood X cicadas want to do is mate and die in peace — is that so much to ask? Unfortunately, a number of the now-emerging cicadas may instead find themselves the victims of a zombifying fungus that transforms their butts into spore-shedding "fungal gardens."
For the past 17 years, while Brood X cicada nymphs sipped tree-root sap underground, a deadly enemy was lying in wait near those very same trees. Massospora cicadina is a fungus that targets periodical cicadas in the genus Magicicada — like Brood X — that emerge in cycles of 13 or 17 years, depending on the species. The fungus eats away at cicada butts, leaving behind a yellowish, abdomen-shaped clump of spores. The fungus also hijacks the cicadas' brains and kicks their sexual behavior into overdrive, Live Science previously reported.
When Massospora cicadina sinks its tendrils into a cicada body, the cicada is still alive, and it stays alive after its butt has been replaced by this bag of spores. At that point, the fungus manipulates the infected cicada and compels it to spread fungal spores to other Brood X cicadas by mating with uninfected insects and by flying around and dispersing the spores... (MORE)
INTRO: All Brood X cicadas want to do is mate and die in peace — is that so much to ask? Unfortunately, a number of the now-emerging cicadas may instead find themselves the victims of a zombifying fungus that transforms their butts into spore-shedding "fungal gardens."
For the past 17 years, while Brood X cicada nymphs sipped tree-root sap underground, a deadly enemy was lying in wait near those very same trees. Massospora cicadina is a fungus that targets periodical cicadas in the genus Magicicada — like Brood X — that emerge in cycles of 13 or 17 years, depending on the species. The fungus eats away at cicada butts, leaving behind a yellowish, abdomen-shaped clump of spores. The fungus also hijacks the cicadas' brains and kicks their sexual behavior into overdrive, Live Science previously reported.
When Massospora cicadina sinks its tendrils into a cicada body, the cicada is still alive, and it stays alive after its butt has been replaced by this bag of spores. At that point, the fungus manipulates the infected cicada and compels it to spread fungal spores to other Brood X cicadas by mating with uninfected insects and by flying around and dispersing the spores... (MORE)