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These fungi drug cicadas with psilocybin or amphetamine to make them mate nonstop
A cicada-infecting fungus produces drugs that make the insects literally mate their butts off.
Massospora fungi make either a drug found in hallucinogenic mushrooms or an amphetamine found in khat leaves, plant pathologist Matthew Kasson of West Virginia University in Morgantown reported June 22 at the ASM Microbe 2019 meeting.
The fungi may use psilocybin, which causes people to hallucinate, or the amphetamine cathinone to suppress cicadas' appetites and keep the insects moving and mating even after they lose big chunks of their bodies. The finding marks the first time that researchers have discovered a fungus, other than mushrooms, producing psilocybin, and the first organism outside of plants to make an amphetamine.
Massospora fungi are transmitted sexually from cicada to cicada. Huge plugs of fungi form on the insects' abdomens, and during mating, parts of the abdomens may break away, Kasson said.
Psilocybin and cathinone.
Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens (DOI: 10.1016/j.funeco.2019.06.002) (DX)
(Score: 1) by CheesyMoo on Tuesday July 09 2019, @04:39PM (1 child)
A new farmable source of high-protein entheogens for zombie soldiers!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @10:17AM
This could actually be how the Zombie Apocaypse comes around. It won't be years and years of Zombies like in The Walking Dead, iZombie, or other company, but it could be months and months of rabies-like infections, with ebola-like outbreaks, spreading from community to community via horny fast moving crazies with fungal scabs and body parts falling off.