The cicadas are coming, and some may become ‘flying saltshakers of death’
Kasson hopes to study a cicada-afflicting parasite known as Massospora. When this fascinating fungus infects an adult cicada, it floods the insect with amphetamine and psilocybin, each of which appear to influence its behavior.
For instance, although the fungus has taken over the lower-third of its body, replacing its abdomen and genitals with fungal tissue, the cicada appears to feel no pain. Instead, infected cicadas seem to want to party.
“There are some hypersexual behaviors,” Kasson said. “The males pretend to be females to get other healthy males to come and attempt to mate with them. And that’s probably a strategy by the fungus to increase the number of individuals that the fungus is able to infect.”
The parasite typically affects less than 5 percent of a given cicada population. But once infected, those chalky white abdomens sprinkle spores everywhere they go.
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