United States: A sexually transmitted fungus is expected to transform millions of cicadas into “zombies,” not the normal zombies, but they will be hyper horny Zombies, according to the Scientists. It is expected that they’ll spread the infection in parts of the United States this coming spring.
However, this is unbelievable as this sounds like a horror-movie-style fungal pathogen known as Massospora cicada, which will cause intimacy between the insects, according to the New York Post.
As per the reports, its spreading in few parts of the Southeast and Midwest. As record numbers of the noisy bugs emerge from the ground, an expert told CBS News.
There is a fungus-like chalky white plug that bursts through the insect’s backsides, which takes over the brains and causes their genitals to fall off. This infection is passed through sex between male and female insects and acts as a “Puppet master” by sending a flood of adrenaline to help males pose as females to pass the infection.
“This fungus is basically sexually transmissible, and it spreads like an STD,” Matthew Kasson, an associate professor of Mycology and Forest Pathology at West Virginia University, told CBS information provided in New York Post by Natalie O’Neill.
There’s this hyper-sexualized behavior. So, males, for example, they’ll continue to try and mate with females — unsuccessfully, because again, their back end is a fungus,” he said, adding, “But they’ll also pretend to be females to get males to come to them. And that doubles the number of cicadas that an infected individual comes in contact with.”
These Cicadas spend most of their lives underground, getting outside every 13 to 17 years, depending on the breed.
It’ll be the first time in 221 times that two types of cicadas, posterity XIX and XIII, have risen from the ground at the same time. Trillions of cicadas were last seen when Thomas Jefferson was chairman of mass US for the first time in over 200 times.
Posterity XIX will pop up in countries similar as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia. Brood XIII, by discrepancy, will appear in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Kasson said that both species are vulnerable to strange infections.
“The cicada continues to share in normal conditioning, like it would if it was healthy, Kasson said. “Like it tries to copulate, it flies around, it walks on shops. Yet, a third of its body has been replaced by fungus. That’s really kind of crazy. Manly cicadas generally make a loud humming sound to attract lady mates, while lady insects flutter their bodies to show they want to get busy.
Male cicadas generally make a loud humming sound to attract lady mates, while lady insects flutter their bodies to show that they want to get busy. For a same-sex connection, however, the zombie fungus causes men to flap their wings. Although hundreds of compounds can turn into sick cicadas, it is unclear if the virus would impact people or other species, according to Kasson.
Researchers believe the fungus’s spores lie latent in the earth before infecting cicadas below ground.
The fungus will cause millions of the bugs to become hypersexual zombie-like creatures.
Overall, he predicted that the fungus will probably infect less than 5% of the trillion cicadas that are predicted to emerge.
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