Dr. Cook teaches the public about periodical cicadas and how they become "zombies!"

Dr. Chelsea Cook gave the rundown about periodical cicadas and how they host and spread a co-evolved fungus that causes what people refer to as “zombie” cicadas on the news on May 28th. The full interview can be found here!

Thirteen year cicadas and seventeen year cicadas are both emerging this summer in the US, a rare occurance that only overlaps once every 221 years. More information about periodical cicadas including a map showing their expected distributions can be found on cicadasafari.org.

Six periodical cicadas all perched on the same leafy plant, as well as two empty molts still attached to the underside of leaves. Photo by Chelsea Cook.

After explaining some background about periodical cicadas, Chelsea explained their relationship with an interesting co-evolved fungus that creates what people have called “zombie” cicadas. As cicadas burrow out of the ground for their emergence, the fungus attaches. It establishes an infection in their adult form and then changes the host’s behavior so that they initiate more frequent matings to spread the fungus like a sexually transmitted disease.

Chelsea describes how cicadas transmit their fungus while Mike Curkov grimaces. Image is a screenshot from the news link above.