Fungi are eukaryotic, chloroplastless, eukaryotes that multiply through spores, are widely present in nature, and more than 120,000 species of fungi have been found, including mold, yeast, mushrooms, and other mushrooms that humans are familiar with. Among the many fungi, there are about three hundred species of fungi that are pathogenic to humans, and almost all of the medically meaningful pathogenic fungi are mold. Once humans suffer from fungal infection diseases, the symptoms will be alleviated after professional treatment. However, the animals in nature are not so lucky, once entangled with fungi, not only will they die tragically, but they will also become the "vegetative" of fungi after death, never resting. The fungus to be introduced today is a typical type of "vampire", and the cicada is an insect that once infected with this fungus, it will become its transmission tool.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > why the seventeenth cicada is called a "noble mathematician" in nature</h1>
In North America, there is a species of cicada that burrows for 17 years before it can be feathered, and it begins to emerge after 17 years of dormancy in the ground, and then molts with branches and then mates. Male cicadas die after mating, and female cicadas die after laying eggs. The mother cicada usually explodes the bark before death to explode the eggs, and when the cicada eggs come into contact with the soil, the cicada pupa will make holes in the ground to find the roots, and then begin to use the stinging mouthpiece to suck the sap of the plant roots, so that it will break out after 17 years of dormancy. The larvae burrow into the earth at dusk or at night in the summer, climb up the trees, molt and feather into adults, and then begin to court and reproduce intensively. Once the "17-year-old cicada" climbs out of the ground, life is very short, even if the larvae are not preyed on by birds, the adults can only survive in the tree for a few weeks. And this kind of cicada is unique to North America, the Chinese cicada burrowing time is 3 to 7 years, and the life cycle of the French cicada is mostly 4 years.
Scientists explain that this peculiar way of life of the "17-year-old cicada" evolved into a long and hidden life cycle in order to avoid predators and safely perpetuate the population. In the United States, there are a total of 7 kinds of periodic cicadas (3 kinds of "17-year cicadas" and 4 kinds of "13-year cicadas"), precisely because the reproductive cycle chosen by "17-year cicadas" and "13-year cicadas" is a prime number, which can only be divisible by 1, 13, 17, so they are also called "noble mathematicians" in nature.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > seventeen years of waiting, and the moment of breaking ground was the beginning of tragedy</h1>
Recently, scientists have found that in some seventeen-year-old cicada-intensive states in the United States, they should be the protagonists of summer, but at this time they are less lively than in the past, and the ground is full of cicadas without "butts", and these cicadas show signs of whitishing from below the abdomen. What happened to them? The tragedy probably started 17 years ago, and it was from the moment they were born that the people behind them were eyeing their cicada mold.
Cicadas that have been lurking underground for seventeen years to avoid predators may not have dreamed that they would be targeted by predators as soon as they were born. According to Matt Kasson, an infectious disease scientist at West Virginia University and an expert in the field for a long time, the fungus only selectively infects cyclic cicadas.
First of all, these fungi grow on the ground where the "17-year cicada" breaks out of the ground, and when the "17-year cicada" climbs out of the ground and gets cymbal mold, these cicadas are basically safe within 7-10 days, because the fungus will develop and multiply in the cicada to produce spores. As soon as this incubation period passed, a terrible scene appeared. The posterior half of the abdomen of a cicada infected with Tutusporus will begin to fall off, revealing a white mass, which is the symptom of being infected with Tutuzonella. At this time, these fungal spores will fly or crawl with the cicadas to a farther and wider place, and the fungi also achieve their purpose of continuous reproduction.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > why Sporella cicadaii is called syphilis in the insect kingdom is related to the way it is infected</h1>
According to expert Matt Kasson, there are two ways for C. cicadas to be infected, one is to spread between adults, once the adults carry Theosporium, it will bring the conidia of Thetusporus to the mates when mating, and so on, also known as the "sexually transmitted" disease of the insect kingdom; the other is that some Oftia cymbidium will enter the dormant spore form, fall on the soil, and wait for the infection of the next generation of "17-year cicadas" to break through the soil. In this way, the tutusporus also completed the 17-year reproduction process and was completely "pinched" by this fungus, no matter which way of infection, these "17-year cicadas" could not escape the end of death. The most common of the two forms of infection is spread to the spouse through mating.
This "sexual transmission" method is very crazy, even if the genitals have fallen off after they are infected, but the cicadas do not seem to be aware of this problem, and still frantically look for the opposite sex to mate. When males are infected with Clonystis and show their small white heads, they will fall off the buttocks and lose their genitals. But male cicadas do not die, and will tirelessly make a characteristic courtship sound, vibrating their wings to attract females. At this time, if any female is attracted by this courtship sound, she will become the next victim.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summary</h1>
Fortunately, even if the control of The Tunosporium is so special, the "17-year cicada" still will not completely yield. At the beginning of the cicada break, only 5% of the cicadas will be infected, considering that the cicadas are widely distributed, and these fungi are only distributed in some areas, so the cicadas in most areas can still live a very healthy life. The survival strategy between cicadas and fungi is a daily occurrence in nature, and it is this mechanism of survival that makes up the vibrant natural world.