A zombie cicada fungus, _Massospora cicadina_, has consumed the rear end of this periodical cicada, replacing it with a 'plug' of chalky spores. Matt Kasson, CC BY-ND Is a zombie apocalypse caused by ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — “Zombie Cicadas” may sound like something from a bad science fiction movie, but a parasitic fungus is infecting periodical cicadas. The infection looks gruesome, with large ...

A fungal disease could soon bring infected cicadas to your backyard. Massospora cicadina is a fungal pathogen that infects only 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas, like this year's Brood XIV.The ...

A team of researchers at West Virginia University in 2019 discovered that Massospora cicadina, a psychedelic fungus that specifically infects periodical cicadas, “contains chemicals similar to those ...

As if the world today isn't strange enough, researchers have discovered a new population of cicadas that are being brutally infected by a parasitic fungus that controls their mind and forces them to ...

LISLE, Illinois — With their bulging red eyes and their alien-like mating sound, periodical cicadas can seem scary and weird enough. But some of them really are sex-crazed zombies on speed, hijacked ...

CHICAGO (WGN) — A sexually transmitted disease that is said to turn cicadas into “zombies” and causes their genitals to fall off has been detected in southern parts of Illinois and is spreading ...

We’ve all heard the horror stories about zombies feeding on people’s brains. But for cicadas, the horror isn’t such a stretch. A mind-controlling fungus is spreading among the insects across the South ...

Growing mushrooms at home is easy. Pictured here is a DIY Mushroom Grow Kit from Virginia Spores & More. Mushrooms play a critical role in nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning by decomposing ...

The periodical cicadas that are about to infest two parts of the United States aren't just plentiful, they're downright weird. These insects are the strongest urinators in the animal kingdom with ...

“They're zombies, completely at the mercy of the fungus,” said University of Connecticut cicada researcher John Cooley. This particular fungus has the largest known genome of any fungus. It has about ...