You have all heard by now that the cicadas are coming. I reported the big news in this very blog two months ago, and since then the American Midwest, the site of this year’s double brood emergence, has been waiting with bated breath. Some are calling it “cicada-geddon.” I am calling it a cool time to go outside and look at bugs—some of which will probably be afflicted by a very gross condition.
When great Biblical masses of living things gather together in one place, stuff tends to start spreading around. In this case, experts believe that the double broods of periodical cicadas climbing out of the earth this summer will bring with them a particularly upsetting fungal pathogen that makes their butts fall off while also causing them to exhibit particularly randy behavior.
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