Zombie flies controlled by fungi: Even after death, mating will not stop

The life spans of creatures on Earth vary. Some creatures have very short life spans, which can even be described as short-lived. Some creatures may live for hundreds of years or even longer. But none of these creatures have the ability to truly live forever, which means that sooner or later their lives will end. Although creatures cannot live forever. The Earth’s ecosystem has been able to maintain a stable state for billions of years. Thanks to the ability of these creatures to reproduce. When reproducing, the exchange of genetic information between male and female individuals is inevitable. Under normal circumstances, when some creatures die, the act of reproducing will not occur again, but some Zombie flies are controlled by fungi, and even if they are dead, they will not stop mating. What’s going on?

Zombie flies controlled by fungi

According to a new study published in The ISME Journal, a research team composed of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. And the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences announced the discovery of a fungus named Entomophthora muscae. This fungus parasitizes female houseflies. After the female flies die, they will be manipulate by the fungus to attract male flies to mate with the dead female flies. During the mating process, this fungus will also be transfer from female flies to male flies, so that the fungus will continue to survive.

What happens is this: Six days after the female flies are infect with the fungus. They are manipulate by the fungus, which takes over their behavior and causes them to climb to the highest point nearby, where they quickly die. As the infected flies die, the fungus releases a chemical signal called sesquiterpenes.

Scientists

Scientists have found that this chemical signal will attract male flies around. The attracted male flies will mate with the bodies of female flies that have died from fungal infection. During the mating process of these flies. The fungus will be transfer from the dead female flies to the living male flies. These male flies will also be infect with the fungus. The final result is that the male flies will continue to infect other female flies. Then male flies will be infect, and the cycle will continue.

What disgusted the researchers was that these male flies actually preferred to mate with female flies. That had been dead for a longer time. Research data showed that about 73% of male flies would mate with female flies. That had been dead for 25-30 hours, and only about 15% of male flies would mate with female flies. That had been dead for 3-8 hours. For this situation, the researchers believe that the longer the female flies that died of fungal infection had died. The greater the spread of these fungi, and the more chemical signals they would release, making them more attractive to male flies.

Zombie cicadas controlled by fungi

Similar situations occur not only in flies, but also in some cicadas. However, what happens in cicadas may not be as disgusting as that in flies.

In the eastern United States, there is a kind of periodic cicada that has been dormant underground for 17 years. According to a study published in “PLOS Pathogens”, a fungus called Massospora will erode these periodic cicadas. The fungal spores will not only erode the back and abdomen of the cicada and grow more fungal spores, but also grow fungal spores on the genitals of these cicadas. Eventually, these cicadas will spread the fungus to other cicadas during courtship, causing more cicadas to be infect with these fungi.

Once infected with the Massospora fungus, the cicadas’ abdomens turn completely white, eventually drying up and easily detaching from their bodies. Even with one-third of their bodies detached, the infected cicadas. They can still live normally and continue courting and trying to mate as if nothing had happened.

Some creatures on Earth are really strange. For example, the zombie flies mentioned above, even if the female flies are dead. Under the “control” of the fungus, they will still send out some chemical signals to attract male flies to mate with them. Finally let the male flies be infect with the fungus. And these fungi will spread indefinitely in the fly group in this way.