The Incredibly Bizarre Story Of Cicadas & Fungi

[Music] [Music] Brittney's everyone I'm out of hair and then stay I'm beyond surreal to be hanging out in an area that's pulsating with a buzz a periodical cicadas some people love this sound some people really dislike this sound personally I'm a huge fan of the buzz and I love heading into an area that's teeming with these extremely fascinating red-eyed insects now the word cicada means treat cricket however cicadas are not true cricket and although some people were participated as locusts cicadas are not closely related to locust locust are closely related to grasshoppers and they feed primarily on leaves and soft plant issues cicadas on the other hand feed primarily on xylem liquids which contained water amino acids and minerals now the periodical cicadas that you're hearing right now belong to the genus majus cicada and these species are found throughout most of the eastern and central United States periodical cicadas spend most of their lives underground and a particular brood of cicadas will emerge every 13 or 17 years yes you heard that correctly every 13 or 17 years depending on the region and depending on the species the species that spent 17 years underground have a more northerly distribution in the United States while the cicadas that emerge every 13 years have a more southerly distribution now the periodical cicadas that can be found right now in June of 2019 in the Northeast belong to brood number eight so if you live in western Pennsylvania Eastern Ohio in the tip of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia and you've probably heard or have come into contact with these insects now the last time this brood emerged was in 2002 so after living underground for 17 years and feeding on dial-in fluids of plant the nymphs have finally made their way to the surface of the soil just within the past couple of weeks and they've already molted now the reason I wanted to bring you along today was not only to show you how fascinating the insects are but I also want to show you something incredibly bizarre something that gets inside the bodies of these cicadas causes their abdomens to fall off it alters the behaviors of these cicadas to a significant degree of course I'm talking about a fungus here and this is a fungus that probably won't see again in this region for over a dozen years let's go see if we can find it [Music] [Music] so this young ash trees is teeming with periodical cicadas and as I mentioned before the periodical cicadas that are emerging right now June 2019 in the Northeast belong to brood number eight and despite the relatively short life cycle as adults which can span between two to six weeks these periodical cicadas are essential components of this ecosystem they're a valued food source for a wide variety of animals including birds mammals reptiles and arthropods and the first cicadas to emerge face the highest predation pressure with as much as 40% of them eaten within the first couple of days also cicada tunnels aerate the soil and assist with tree growth and surprisingly the twig damage caused by egg-laying females essentially prunes trees and stimulates future growth okay so actually moved over a bit because this is actually a better tree this is a Hawthorn tree and it is loaded with periodical cicadas so what I'm going to try to do is pull a couple down respect the abdomens and that the abdomens are missing if I see it being replaced by this powdery mass of fungal spores then I know I have a cicada with a fungal infection so I'm going to carefully try to pull a couple of these down and see what we can see I guess I got very vocal mail right here and this one is healthy there's no sign of fungal infection unfortunately for me because that's what I'm looking for but fortunately for this health email right here so I'll let this one go try to pull down another one or two see if we can find that fungus I gotta careful cuz they're very jumpy a little deep in here go got to okay both of these are healthy fortunately for the sicán is unfortunately for me because that's what I'm looking for is a fungal infection but I don't see any missing abdomen I don't see these fungal spores anywhere so let me go maybe I'll try to find one more the very store near Hawthorne I was one of these here at this one very vocal today very loud again I don't see any sign of fungal infection this one looks very very healthy I just don't think it appreciates me holding it like this but I'll let this one go no sign of fungal infection here but I'll continue my search because this area's just loaded with periodical cicadas [Music] [Laughter] [Music] finally after looking around for probably half an hour I finally found a cicada infected by the fungal pathogen you can see it at the bottom right here you see how the bottom the abdomen is missing and it's replaced by this powdery massive fungal spore so how does something like this happen I mean we look at all these other cicadas and I've been looking pretty much every cicada has been healthy but this is the first one that I saw today it has signs of this fungal infection so after living underground for 17 years and feeding on the xylem fluids of plants the cicada nymphs make their way to the surface of the soil in the process however some nymph as unfortunate as it seems come into contact with spores from a pathogenic fungus known as matthos fora sick Edina while many of these nymphs will continue their lifecycle unscathed by the fungus a small percentage of the insects around two to five percent will soon develop an infection that manifests itself as a blown out abdomen and a powdery mass of fungal spores so what you're seeing here is a cicada infected by the pathogenic fungus masses for a sick Idina this cicadas abdomen has already fallen off and it has been replaced by this white powdery material that consists of fungal spores now the infected cicadas don't die immediately and as you can see here this little fellow is still active though to a reduced degree so rather than dying immediately infected cicadas instead display strange behavior males for instance act like sexually receptive females by flicking their wings this behavior attracts healthy male cicadas who by coming into contact with the infected and genital list males also contract the fungal infection which could technically be considered a sexually transmitted disease now some infected cicadas even fly around and in the process they spread massive fora fungal spores far and wide the spores that blanket the forest floor can remain dormant for over a dozen years awaiting the emergence of the next brood of periodical cicadas ultimately perpetuating the success of this long pathogenic fungus as if all of this isn't interesting enough this intima pathogenic fungus massive forest sick Edina contains the alkaloid compound cathinone cathinone is a naturally occurring amphetamine found in Catha edulis and Catha edulis is a shrub that is commonly chewed in certain countries of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula for its stimulant and euphoria inducing effects now what effect might cathinone in this fungus have on the infected cicadas well researchers theorized that cathinone in masses for a sick Idina causes infected cicadas to be more active in spreading fungal spores despite the loss under abdomen and genitals as if it couldn't get any crazier other species of masses pora that infect annual cicadas contain the mind-altering compounds psilocybin and solution the same compounds that are responsible for the hallucinogenic effects produced by selasa fee and other magic mushrooms now the vast majority of the periodical cicadas an obscene today displayed no signs of fungal infection and as unfortunate as the circumstances may be for the cicadas that have lost their abdomens and their genitals personally I find that the hunt to locate these infected cicadas including this one right here is absolutely thrilling to me and I know it may sound strange but it's almost as rewarding as a morel mushroom hunt because you never know what you're going to see you never know how many the fungi you're going to see you never know how long it's going to take you to find these fungi and although I won't be necessarily eating these infected cicadas I would still consider this fungus hunt to be successful so I encourage you if you live in an area that's currently pulsating with the buzz on these periodical cicadas look closely and perhaps you too will find the bizarre fungus that destroyed the abdomen it alters the behaviors of the tacular red-eyed [Music] [Music] thanks so much for watching this video truly appreciate it hope you learn something today bump periodical cicadas and about masses for a stick Adina you enjoyed this video feel free to subscribe to the YouTube channel you can also head on over to learn your land on sign up for the email newsletter so we can stay in touch thanks again happy masses for sick Edina fungus hungry [Music]

Channel: Learn Your Land

Views: 703,680

Keywords: Adam Haritan, Learn Your Land, Fungus, Mushroom, Fungi, Mushroom Hunting, Cicada, Magicicada, Massospora, Medicinal Mushroom, Botany, Plants, Insects, Entomology, Pennsylvania, Gardening, Mycology, Permaculture, Primitive Skills, Outside, Outdoors, Nature, Hiking, Backpacking, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing

Id: mSmD43tS9O0

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 14 2019