Trillions of cicadas will emerge across several U.S. states this spring in an event one expert dubbed "cicada-geddon." Not only are more cicadas than usual expected this year, but some of them will be "zombie cicadas" that are infected by a sexually transmitted fungus that makes them hyper-sexual. ... 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." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cicada...cted-to-emerge-this-year-massospora-cicadina/
