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Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away
    #27308678 -

Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away
May 14, 2021 - USA Today

This month, as billions of Brood X cicadas emerge from the dirt in more than a dozen states for the first time in 17 years, some of the bugs will suffer a horrific, science-fiction-like fate.

There’s no delicate way to do this, so here’s the gist all at once.

A fungus laced with the same chemical as psychedelic mushrooms will invade their bodies and eat away their insides until their abdomens crack, fall off and get replaced with a ball of white spores. Because they’re either bombed on psilocybin or under the control of the fungus in some other way, the cicadas won’t even notice. With missing butts and full hearts, they’ll forge ahead with their only reason for existing: finding a mate and reproducing.

Of course, that last part will be impossible with half their body rotted away.

Brood X is on the way:Here's how to keep cicadas out of your stuff

“Really what they’re doing is spreading these spores all over the place,” said John Lill, a cicada expert and chair of biology at George Washington University. “It’s a sexually transmitted fungus. They engage in normal courtship behavior, yet their abdomen is a big fungal mass. Instead, the attempted copulation results in spreading the fungus even more.”

Called Massospora cicadina, the fungus can inflict both males and females. But it affects the former in a special way.

Usually, males croon loud songs to attract a mate. That’s the UFO-esque buzzing you’ll hear this spring. If a female catches a song she likes, she responds by flicking her wings.

Massospora lays all that to waste. It causes males to both sing and flick their wings, allowing them to attract any partner they can. That larger playing field helps the spores spread farther and wider.

“It’s this gender-bending, death-zombie fungus,” Lill said.

'Flying salt shakers of death'

All this obviously raises questions. Where did the fungus come from? How did we find out it’s pumped with mind-altering drugs? And if you gobble a bunch of these butt-less insects, can you get high?


* Related article: Smithsonian Magazine

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: veggie]
    #27308694 -

is this related to a cordyceps? the psilocybin throws me off though, can we get high eating infected cicada's?


--------------------
For most of the normies out there, an operating system is just a bootloader for Google Chrome.

And I don't know what the mantis is praying for
But he's probably just thanking the Lord
That he don't live in a home
And he don't got a phone
And he don't sit around all angry and bored
(He's just a bug)

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: gopher]
    #27308737 -

The Massospora cicadina is not related to cordyceps, but does have a similar weird, zombie, mind control type effect. Sure, you can eat cicadas and there are many recipes online, but eating infected ones are not advised. But, if you are so inclined, this site says you would need about a dozen to get high.

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: gopher]
    #27308742 -

It would be cool if they got a little more precise with their science because now I gotta UTFSE to find out if they’re making this up..:crankey:


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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: veggie]
    #27308774 -

It's probably more like you'd need about a dozen, properly processed, to get a buzz.

Unless you already make a habit of eating large amounts of insects, I doubt eating infected cicadas(even if it were safe) would result in a satisfying experience.

That said, I'm always receptive to new reports. As long as they aren't coming from me.

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: Holybullshit]
    #27308945 -

" style="display: block; letter-spacing: 0.075em; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 0.625rem; line-height: 1.2;">

M. KASSON

By Tina Hesman Saey

JUNE 25, 2019 AT 2:42 PM

SAN FRANCISCO — A cicada-infecting fungus produces drugs that make the insects literally mate their butts off.

Massospora fungi make either a drug found in hallucinogenic mushrooms or an amphetamine found in khat leaves, plant pathologist Matthew Kasson of West Virginia University in Morgantown reported June 22 at the ASM Microbe 2019 meeting.

The fungi may use psilocybin, which causes people to hallucinate, or the amphetamine cathinone to suppress cicadas’ appetites and keep the insects moving and mating even after they lose big chunks of their bodies. The finding marks the first time that researchers have discovered a fungus, other than mushrooms, producing psilocybin, and the first organism outside of plants to make an amphetamine.

FALL Cicadas mate with their rear ends touching. When cicadas with a Massospora fungal infection mate, parts of their abdomens can break off and stick to the mating partner. Even after losing the body part, the insects will keep looking for more mates.GERRY BISHOP/SHUTTERSTOCK

Losing body parts would surely slow most organisms down, and yet for the fungal-infected cicadas, “two-thirds of their body might be missing, and they would be whistling as they walk down the street,” Kasson said. The infected insects mate nearly nonstop, spreading the fungi to partners, he and colleagues report June 25 in Fungal Ecology.

Overall, the team discovered 1,176 small molecules in fungus-infected cicadas, including the two psychoactive drugs. The researchers aren’t sure how the fungi produce the drugs, which in other organisms require enzymes that seem to be missing from Massospora. So the fungi may be using new ways to make the compounds, Kasson said. The team is also trying to determine what the other molecules do to influence cicada behavior.

CITATIONS

M. Kasson. Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens. ASM Microbe 2019, San Francisco, June 22, 2019.  

G.R. Boyce et al. Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens. Fungal Ecology. Vol. 41, October 2019, p. 147. Published online June 25, 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.funeco.2019.06.002.

More Stories from

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: All41]
    #27308952 -

The uninfected ones taste like raw chop meat

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: All41] * 1
    #27309187 -

DEATH TO THE CICADA!!!  They are so loud and annoying they can damage your hearing too.  In the desert they come back every year not 17 years. 

Also my dogs eat them up like candy.


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I never thanked ya fer saving my life.

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: Lieutenant Pan] * 2
    #27309689 -

^NO no cicadas are awesome, Lieutenants are loud and annoying^

"The finding marks the first time that researchers have discovered a fungus, other than mushrooms, producing psilocybin,"

well no, there was also a lichen discovered with psylocybin, it was big news back in 2016.

might be interested to watch this new fungus grow on a agar plates.


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PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN get back to the garden

some came singing, some come to play, some come for keeping the dark away

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: ellomello]
    #27309776 -

There is a youtube video of a guy going crazy trying to get a cicada out of his bushes haha


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I never thanked ya fer saving my life.

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: Lieutenant Pan]
    #27310617 -

I wonder if it fruits mushrooms? The cicadas fungus on their butts. Someone drop a cicada butt in an agar plate! I heard it’s this year that they come out right?

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: Enjoil]
    #27312629 -

there is a 17 year old generation emerging every year.. each new generation stays in the ground 17 years.


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PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN get back to the garden

some came singing, some come to play, some come for keeping the dark away

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: All41]
    #27312660 -

All41 said:
" style="display: block; letter-spacing: 0.075em; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 0.625rem; line-height: 1.2;">

M. KASSON

By Tina Hesman Saey

JUNE 25, 2019 AT 2:42 PM

SAN FRANCISCO — A cicada-infecting fungus produces drugs that make the insects literally mate their butts off.

Massospora fungi make either a drug found in hallucinogenic mushrooms or an amphetamine found in khat leaves, plant pathologist Matthew Kasson of West Virginia University in Morgantown reported June 22 at the ASM Microbe 2019 meeting.

The fungi may use psilocybin, which causes people to hallucinate, or the amphetamine cathinone to suppress cicadas’ appetites and keep the insects moving and mating even after they lose big chunks of their bodies. The finding marks the first time that researchers have discovered a fungus, other than mushrooms, producing psilocybin, and the first organism outside of plants to make an amphetamine.

FALL Cicadas mate with their rear ends touching. When cicadas with a Massospora fungal infection mate, parts of their abdomens can break off and stick to the mating partner. Even after losing the body part, the insects will keep looking for more mates.GERRY BISHOP/SHUTTERSTOCK

Losing body parts would surely slow most organisms down, and yet for the fungal-infected cicadas, “two-thirds of their body might be missing, and they would be whistling as they walk down the street,” Kasson said. The infected insects mate nearly nonstop, spreading the fungi to partners, he and colleagues report June 25 in Fungal Ecology.

Overall, the team discovered 1,176 small molecules in fungus-infected cicadas, including the two psychoactive drugs. The researchers aren’t sure how the fungi produce the drugs, which in other organisms require enzymes that seem to be missing from Massospora. So the fungi may be using new ways to make the compounds, Kasson said. The team is also trying to determine what the other molecules do to influence cicada behavior.

CITATIONS

M. Kasson. Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens. ASM Microbe 2019, San Francisco, June 22, 2019.  

G.R. Boyce et al. Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens. Fungal Ecology. Vol. 41, October 2019, p. 147. Published online June 25, 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.funeco.2019.06.002.

More Stories from


I have some doubts about the presence of cathinones and psilocybin in this fungus. Reminds me of this odd tree species that reportedly contained mescaline, cocaine, cathinones, among a hodge podge of other psychoactive drugs.

They later found that their equipment was not properly calibrated and the samples had a lot of contamination.


--------------------
"I didn't know chicken's wore suspenders" - Towelie


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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: Enjoil]
    #27313094 -

Enjoil said:
Someone drop a cicada butt in an agar plate!


:like:


--------------------
WEF defector.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/shit-burgers-meat-made-from-human-feces-just-another-natela
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upload_(TV_series)

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: durian_2008]
    #27314442 -

So its not just a trip youre also on speed too?
We gotta find a way to cultivate this fungus.... I bet this is just part of its life cycle right? Like it has to live somewhere else than just the bugs.

Its absolutely amazing to me that there is a fungi that not only produces psilocybin but also a fking amphetamine and it causes bugs to essentially become tweaking hippies till they rot to death. A lot like tweaky hippies.

Again, we must cultivate this fungi xD It could be used as an awesome natural insecticide.


--------------------
(You Know What Time It Is)
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the migrants, and I did not speak out because I was not a migrant.
Then they came for the queers, and I did not speak out because I was not queer.
Then they came for me, and there was nobody left to help me.
ABOLISH ICE. Free Palestine. Revolution or bust (A) . Profile pic credit goes to an awesome human
Be Gay, Do Crime 161 1312

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: Ashtray161]
    #27314724 -

If I ever come across one it's going directly to agar,  unfortunately I won't be able to assess any fruits as cathinones interact with my medication.


--------------------


"Blow up your TV, throw away your paper.  Go to the country, build you a home."

- John Prine

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: schmutzen] * 1
    #27316095 -

I’ve found a couple so far. I don’t think this poses any threat. It’s like 1 out of 1000



Most of them are infection free



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NotSheekle said
“if I believed she was 16 I would become unattracted to her”

Edited by koods (05/20/21 09:35 AM)

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: Lieutenant Pan] * 1
    #27316103 -

Lieutenant Pan said:
DEATH TO THE CICADA!!!  They are so loud and annoying they can damage your hearing too.  In the desert they come back every year not 17 years. 

Also my dogs eat them up like candy.


Those are the annual cicadas. The periodical cicadas come out in numbers 10,000x more.
This is a tree in my neighborhood and the emergence is just getting underway.



This was two nights ago in my yard. Last night was 10x this so many I didn’t even venture into the yard.


If you stand still for any period of time they start crawling up your body


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NotSheekle said
“if I believed she was 16 I would become unattracted to her”

Edited by koods (05/20/21 09:45 AM)

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: koods]
    #27316362 -

Dang that is crazy! we only get a few, pretty rare here, maybe think about getting some chickens.


--------------------
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN get back to the garden

some came singing, some come to play, some come for keeping the dark away

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Re: Brood X cicadas threatened by 'death-zombie fungus' that rots half their bodies away [Re: ellomello]
    #27316387 -

There’s one in my house starting to make noise but every time I go looking it stops

Everything is eating them even the deer. The other night I saw a fox grabbing them out of the grass and a raccoon digging them up


--------------------
NotSheekle said
“if I believed she was 16 I would become unattracted to her”

Edited by koods (05/20/21 01:47 PM)

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