The Fungus Among Us

2021 is the year of the Brood X Cicada.  You are forgiven if you do not have a specific, vivid recollection of the last time these annoying, ugly insects were among us.  It was 2004.  The world would not even begin trying to keep up with the Kardashians for another three years.  

The re-emergence of the Brood X Cicada, coming as it has with we the people of these United States still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, has proven to be a boon to editorial cartoonists.  This is one of my favorites:

(c) Cincinnati Enquirer 2021

As it turns out, it is not COVID-19 against which these bug-eyed noisemakers needed to be vaccinated.  Their Achille's heel has proven to be Massospora cicadina - a fungus that "first causes their rear ends o fall off - including their genitals - and make them appear to have an eraser end for a butt."  It then, "produces compounds of cathinone - an amphetamine - infects a small number of the cicadas and makes them lose control."   

How so?  

It makes them go wild, pushing their sex drive into overdrive, with the cicadas furiously attempting to mate, despite no longer having the required appendanges.

I am no Biblical scholar so I do not pretend to know whether over-sexed, assless cicadas are a sign of the Apocalypse, and if they are, which one.  It does seem to me, however, they are indeed a sign of our times.  

-AK