CICADAS are susceptible to a sexually transmitted fungal disease that makes their gonads fall off, research shows.
Cicadas have been a hot topic lately as trillions will soon swarm the United States for the first time in 221 years.
Now research is showing that these creatures are especially peculiar because they can transmit a sexually transmitted fungal disease.
This disease turns them into "zombies" and causes their gonads to be torn from their bodies, per the Associated Press.
It’s a real problem that “is even stranger than science fiction,” said University of Connecticut entomologist John Cooley, per the AP.
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HOW DOES IT WORK?
The fungus is called Massospora and it can produce compounds of cathinone.
This amphetamine-type chemical can infect a small number of cicadas.
After the fungus takes over the male cicadas, it causes their gonads to fall from their body.
Once this happens, the spores spread to other nearby cicadas, causing the insects to be sterilized, but not killed.
The spores that grow on the cicadas replace the creatures' butts with a white plug of fungus.
“They’re completely at the mercy of the fungus,” Cooley said. “They’re walking dead.”
Cooley added that in certain parts of the Midwest, as many as 10% of the cicadas were infected.
Matt Kasson, an associate professor of forest pathology and mycology at West Virginia University, told NPR's All Things Considered that the fungus manipulates the cicadas causing them to "mate like crazy."
Kasson explained that infected males continue to mate with females, and in some cases even pretend to be females to spread the fungus further.
"It's sexually transmissible," Kasson told NPR. "It's a failed mating attempt, of course, because there's no genitalia back there."
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"Everybody's having a good time while they're infected, so I don't imagine there's much pain" Kasson added.
THE CICADAS ARE COMING
Cicadas are a superfamily of insects in the order Hemiptera with features like prominent eyes, short antennae, and membranous front wings.
As some cicadas are suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, trillions are preparing to emerge from the ground in the US.
In late April, two large broods of periodical cicadas are expected to emerge from the ground for a noisy mating frenzy.
"Billions, even trillions, of cicadas are going to emerge at the same time across 17 states," Chris Simon, a professor in UConn's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, told Live Science.
Brood XIII and XIX have been living underground for 17 and 13 years respectively.
They will soon emerge at the same time for the first time in 221 years.
Periodical broods are found in eastern North America and tend to emerge in large numbers.