A fungus could turn some cicadas into sex-crazed 'salt shakers of death'
Yellow-white fungus grows inside the cicadas, filling their insides and pushing out against their abdomens. One by one, the rings that compose the back halves of their bodies slough off and fall to the ground.
Some researchers call these infected cicadas "flying salt shakers of death." And they're lurking among Brood X, in the United States.
Unlike other fungal pathogens, the fungus Massospora doesn't kill the insects on which it grows. Instead, it forces the cicadas to act in ways that promote the fungus' spread.
"That's what people can immediately recognise as, 'This is a zombie, this is no longer a normal cicada, something strange is happening here,' " said Brian Lovett, a postdoctoral researcher at West Virginia University who co-wrote a 2020 study about the fungus.
Scientists have known about Massospora's effects on cicadas since the mid-19th century, but the fungus has cycled back into the public eye with the emergence of Brood X. As billions of cicadas that have hidden underground since 2004 pop up through the soil, Lovett said he expects less than 10 per cent to be infected.
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