ColesStreetPothole , 2 months ago @ElleGray So the fungus makes their genitals fall off, but also doses them with amphetamines so that they shag like crazy? Kids these days. Kasson said the reason the cicadas might be able to ignore the fungus is that it produces an amphetamine, which could give them stamina. "But there's also something else unusual about it," he said. "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. 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."
@ElleGray So the fungus makes their genitals fall off, but also doses them with amphetamines so that they shag like crazy? Kids these days.
Kasson said the reason the cicadas might be able to ignore the fungus is that it produces an amphetamine, which could give them stamina. "But there's also something else unusual about it," he said. "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. 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."