Following the appearance of a member of the cicada family this summer, scientists have discovered a mysterious insect that hijacks insects and turns them into hypersexual “zombies” on amphetamines, with the aim of spreading the parasite to other hosts. They began collecting specimens of cicadas infected with parasitic fungi.
Matt Casson, a mycology professor at West Virginia University, told The Associated Press that he and his 9-year-old son Oliver and graduate student Angie Macias visited the Morton Arboretum in suburban Chicago to track infected cicadas. spoke.
The fungus, Massospora cicada, infects cicadas and turns the back parts of their bodies into “a chalky mess of spores,” Chicago’s Field Museum told FOX News Digital earlier this month.
The fungus takes over the cicada’s private parts, discarding its reproductive organs and replacing them with what the Field Museum describes as a “fungal plug.” During the mating process, the plugs can be torn off, allowing the cicadas to “fly around raining down spores, further spreading the fungus.”
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This fungus infects cicadas, turning the back parts of their bodies into a chalky mess of spores. (AP Photo/Carolyn Custer)
When this fungus takes over a cicada, it produces amphetamines (a drug called speed), and it is the only fungus on Earth to do so.


Matt Casson, professor of mycology at West Virginia University, prepares to process live periodic cicadas infected with the Massospora cicada fungus on Thursday, June 6, 2024, at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. are. (AP Photo/Carolyn Custer)
Infected cicadas should be rare, but Casson and his small team collected 36 on a short hunt in the Chicago area. But people have already sent him about 200 more letters from all over the country. Casson is awaiting RNA analysis of the fungus.
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“This has been a mycological oddity for a long time,” Casson told The Associated Press about the mysterious fungus. “It has the largest genome. It produces wild compounds. It keeps the host active – all those characteristics.”


An intact female periodic cicada infected with Massospora cicada is observed at Morton Arboretum on Thursday, June 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Custer)
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Experts say the fungus turns cicadas into drugged-up, sex-crazed “flying salts of death” but poses no danger to humans or other animals.
Fox News’ Christine Rousselle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.