A fungus is turning cicadas into horny zombies — but don’t panic

The fungus takes over cicadas’ lower halves and sex drives, fueling them to keep mating and spreading the disease in the process. That's why some scientists call them “flying salt shakers of death.”of the eastern and southern U.S. are turning into sex-crazed “zombies,” thanks to a fungus that tears off their genitals but drives them to keep mating nonetheless.

Their attempts at reproduction, doomed from the start, only fuel the virus’ spread, a group of scientists at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History told NPR in a statement.“Eventually, their fungal plug gets ripped open, and they fly around raining down spores, further spreading the fungus,” they wrote. “Some scientists call the cicadas at this stage 'flying salt shakers of death.

“It turns out the fungus produces a stimulant called cathinone that likely means the cicadas don’t mind because they are possibly high out of their minds,” he wrote on X .— a plant-associated amphetamine — in four infected cicada populations, and the hallucinogen psilocybin in some annual cicadas infected with the fungus.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

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