Cicadas are being body-snatched by genital-eating, mind-controlling, sex-mad psychedelic fungus that eats most of the insects’ bodies and replaces it with “fungal plugs”, which allow them to continue to go about their business as if nothing is happening.
“The study highlights recent findings including how infection leads to hypersexual behavior. Even though infected cicadas lose their ability to mate when their backsides become fungal plugs, they will still attempt to mate to sexually transmit the fungus to healthy cicadas.
The parasitic fungus even manipulates male cicadas into flicking their wings to imitate the females’ mating invitation so they can also infect unsuspecting male cicadas to rapidly transmit the disease.”