SoylentNews

takyon writes:

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)

Original Submission