This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

About a week after the bugs emerge, signs of the fungus start to appear. The spores force the back half of the insects’ bodies to fall off, Lovett said, revealing an eraser-like mass of fungus. As the cicadas continue to walk and fly, apparently oblivious to the situation, the spores fall off and infect other insects — just what the fungus is trying to provoke.


Africana55 Radio 