The fungal parasite Massospora cicadina not only cohabits and transmogrifies the bodies of its hosts, but bends their will to its purposes, spreading death, destruction, and spores along the way.

While this might sound like some sort of a demonic possession, scientists have characterized the process by which such Entomophthoralean fungi — an order of fungi that takes its name from the ancient Greek words for "insect" and "destruction" — subvert host structures and behaviors for their own aims as the modification of host phenotypes.

Whereas Entomophthoralean fungi largely kill their hosts in order to disseminate its spores, Massospora cicadina keeps its host alive.

There are two types of Massospora cicadina infections. Cicadas with stage one infections produce spores capable of infecting other adult cicadas. Cicadas with stage two infections lay fungal traps for the next generation of cicadas that will emerge from the soil some 13 or 17 years later.

Up to 10% of both a 13-year brood and a 17-year brood will face the possibility of becoming "zombie insects" this year. The University of Connecticut's Biodiversity Research Collections Periodical Cicada Information website indicated that for the first time since 2015, a 13-year brood will emerge in the same year as a 17-year brood.

A study published in the peer-reviewed Nature journal Scientific Reports noted that infections cause "distention and loss of the terminal abdominal segments, genitalia included, in both sexes; the breached abdomen exposes infective spores and allows their dispersal."

One of the study's authors, Dr. John Cooley, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, Hartford, recently told CNN that when it comes to this fungal parasite, "the truth is actually much stranger than science fiction."

After an infected cicada's genitals and rear fall off, a white fungal plug bulges out in their place.

Matt Kasson, an associate professor of mycology and forest pathology at West Virginia University, told CNN, "It looks like there's a gumdrop that's been dropped in chalk dust, glued to the backside of these cicadas."

Some scientists have observed cicadas with stage one infections flying less often and opting instead to drag around their spore-laden abdomens, spreading spores and looking for potential victims. Cicadas with stage two infections apparently spend more time flying around, bombing spores from their corrupted abdomens.

Both sexes with stage one infections apparently become hypersexual in an effort to serve the parasite's purposes.

'So when they pull apart, guess what happens? Rip.'

Infected males try to maximize the victim coverage, exhibiting the wing-flick signaling-behavior "normally seen only in sexually receptive female cicadas" in an effort to trick other males into thinking they are females keen on copulating. By the time male victims realize their mate is not as advertised, it's often too late as the spores spread easily in close proximity.

Female cicadas are apparently incapable of identifying and avoiding infected males, so they too are at risk.

Cooley's study noted that "Massospora functions at least partly as a sexually transmitted disease and the novel behaviors of infected males are complex manipulations instigated by the fungus for its own benefit."

Deception is not the only way the infection is spread.

"Periodical cicadas have interlocking genitalia. So when they pull apart, guess what happens? Rip. And then there's a cicada walking around with someone else's genitals stuck to them," said Cooley. "And now the cicada that's infected is busted open."

Once "busted open," infected cicadas become what Kasson and others refer to as "saltshakers of death."

They fly around, flaking brown spores that threaten to infect the next brood.

Kasson and other scientists determined that infected cicadas are likely able to keep moving and mating despite their injuries because the fungus produces psychoactive compounds during infection. The first is a type of amphetamine, cathinone. The second is psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, in infected cicadas.

Cooley has, however, expressed uncertainty whether such drugs would affect the bugs in a similar manner as they do vertebrates.

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NYC plagued by insect swarms, smoky haze

New Yorkers are being plagued with swarms of flying bugs amid a smoky haze from Canadian wildfires as they head in to Independence Day festivities, the New York Times reported.

The winged menace being swatted away to little avail are aphids, experts say, not gnats, as some battling the minuscule bugs had mistakenly surmised.

Fortunately, the aphids present no health concern. Unfortunately, they present a considerable nuisance to natives and tourists alike.

Swarms this time of year are unusual, as aphids don't typically come out in New York City until after summer, Professor David Lohman, an entomologist at the City University of New York, told WNBC. Lohman theorized the warm winter could have contributed to the early arrival.

"I wanted to dodge them. One of them flew in my nose and it was not pleasant," Martin Perez, an Upper East Sider told the outlet.

The soft bodied, green or white insects emerge to coordinate reproduction, Dr. Corrie Moreau, a Cornell University entomology professor told the New York Times. Moreau agrees with Lohman that the warm winter is to blame for the timing.

Folks who have accidentally swallowed aphids as they make their way through the swarm have little cause for concern, Moreau also said, adding that people should be wearing masks anyway due to air quality concerns.

The bugs' appearance is not likely to be related to smoke from the Canadian wildfires, State University of New York entomologist Kim Adams told the outlet, remarking on the haze that has descended on the city once again.

Though the smoke appears unrelated to the aphids, it does add to beleaguered Gothamists' discomfort.

As of Saturday afternoon, the air quality index level for New York City was in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" range at 105.

New Yorkers are not alone in facing a hazy summer.

"The number of people that are exposed is unprecedented in the modern era," Michael Wara, an energy and climate policy expert at Stanford University told the Washington Post.

Air quality alerts affected 23 states Thursday, the outlet also said.

A "Code Red" warning was issued Thursday as smog drifted back into D.C., WTOP reported.

Experts say smog and haze can be especially problematic for people with conditions like asthma and chronic lung diseases. They recommend paying attention to local air quality reports, staying indoors, and running an air conditioner.

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Mother says she's feeding baby cricket products and plans to eventually add worms, ants, and grasshoppers

Food writer Tiffany Leigh wrote a piece in which she said she is feeding her baby cricket products and plans to introduce other creatures such as worms, ants, and grasshoppers in the future.

Leigh explained that part of her motivation for adding crickets into meals was to save money.

"I decided to add crickets into mealtimes with my 18-month-old baby. To be honest, it was not only adventurousness that compelled me to do it but practicality, too — I wanted to cut down on our family's grocery bill," she explained.

Adding the cricket products into their eating habits has resulted in decresed food costs, Leigh noted.

"With a baby, our food costs have spiked to about $250 to $300 a week. To supplement the rising prices, I decided to get Cricket Puff snacks, Cricket Protein Powder, and Whole Roasted Crickets from Entomo Farms. Because I've started rotating these insects with more traditionally expensive proteins like beef, chicken, and pork, I've managed to cut my bill down to about $150 to $200 a week," she wrote.

Leigh reported that her baby did not like whole roasted crickets, but the child did enjoy cheese puff snacks — according to the ingredients list, the snack contains cricket flour.

"During infancy, a child is particularly receptive to exploring a wide variety of foods — a strong argument for introducing insects early on and getting ahead of any negative stereotypes around eating bugs, such as being 'scary' or 'inedible,'" pediatric dietician and nutritionist Venus Kalami noted, according to Insider. Kalami said that "there are plenty of nutritious ways to share edible insects in an age-appropriate way with babies." She said "many insects are packed with key nutrients like high-quality protein, essential fatty acids, minerals like iron (some have more than beef) and zinc, vital B vitamins, and more."

"In the future, I have plans to incorporate more edible insects into our meals, such as ants, grasshoppers, and worms, which Kalami said are a fantastic source of protein and other key nutrients that babies need, such as iron and zinc," Leigh wrote.

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'Dark climate change religion': Middle school teacher feeds sixth-graders bugs and climate alarmist propaganda

Utah's Nebo School District seeks to "prepare students to succeed in school and life." Apparently, that preparation now involves eating bugs and developing a dislike of beef.

Fox News Digital reported that a middle school in the district recently provided sixth-grade students with bugs to eat as part of an English assignment concerning the specter of anthropogenic climate change.

What are the details?

Students were instructed to write an essay on March 7 arguing in support of the consumption of insects rather than cows. The assignment's baked-in presumption was that the mass production and consumption of insect-based foods contra beef will impact weather patterns to a lesser extent.

Children involved in this interactive agitprop were reportedly barred from disagreeing with the premise in their essays. Some students were even given extra credit to consume bugs, which the district admitted to sourcing from a commercial site.

Amanda Wright, a mother of one of the students in the class, challenged the school's principal over the assignment, noting it had made her daughter feel uncomfortable.

Wright suggested that the assignment was tantamount to "indoctrination" and part of a concerted effort to evangelize on behalf of a "dark climate change religion."

Following her initial complaint, Wright met with school administrators and recorded the conversation. Alison Hansen, the principal, was recorded saying "the assignment was about finding facts to support" the climate alarmist premise.

"All the evidence has suggested ... that we probably should be eating bugs – it's good for the environment, etc. But I didn't know that that was an offensive topic," said Kim Cutler, a teacher at Spring Canyon Middle School not presently listed on its faculty page.

Wright's daughter similarly captured evidence of climate dogmatism in the classroom.

"How come we can't state our opinion and write that we shouldn't be eating bugs?" asked the sixth-grader.

"Because we don't have any evidence to support it," said Cutler.

In 2019, Swedish researchers warned in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution that by rushing into the mass production and consumption of insects, "we risk creating an industry that replaces one environmental problem with another."

Whereas Cutler told Wright's daughter there was no evidence to support not eating bugs, experts at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences suggested there is similarly little evidence to suggest that the mass rearing of insects won't turn out to be calamitous.

"The emerging insects-as-food industry is increasingly promoted as a sustainable alternative to other animal protein production systems. However, the exact nature of its environmental benefits are uncertain because of the overwhelming lack of knowledge concerning almost every aspect of production: from suitable species, their housing and feed requirements, and potential for accidental release," said the researchers.

The researchers added, "If ecological sustainability is to be a hallmark of mass insect rearing for consumption, ecologists need to engage in research related to sustainability criteria that are directly linked to key elements of the development of the industry."

Cutler told the younger Wright, "It's kind of weird that I gave you a topic where there is only one right answer. We don't want to eat bugs and it's gross. But should we be eating bugs? Yeah, because we're killing the world by raising cows and animals. So we need to, not get rid of cows, but like, try to balance our diet so that not so much of our land is being used to raise cows, 'cause it's killing the ozone layer."

When the younger Wright attempted to raise an objection, Cutler said, "There's only one right answer to this essay. And it's that Americans should be eating bugs. Everyone in the world is eating them, it's healthy for the environment and there's just, there's only one right answer."

Fox News Digital indicated that Cutler later explained that the district had pushed bug-eating advocacy in its training.

The district admitted in a statement that extra credit had been offered in exchange for kids eating bugs and noted that upon Wright expressing concern, 'The student was offered another topic of the student’s choice. Remember this particular assignment is about finding facts versus opinions to support writing an argumentative essay."

Bugging out

TheBlaze has previously reported on the joint effort by climate alarmists and technocrats to preclude the masses from consuming real meat as part of a broader campaign to combat the specter of climate change.

The Guardian ran an op-ed in 2018 claiming, "Reducing our meat intake is crucial to avoiding climate breakdown, since food production accounts for about a quarter of all human-related greenhouse gas emissions, and is predicted to rise. In western countries, this means eating 90% less beef and five times as many beans and pulses."

A 2017 review published in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development suggested that rather than meat, humans could instead try eating weeds, micro-algae, and bugs.

The World Economic Forum ran an article in February 2022 touting bugs as "an excellent alternative source of protein" and a way to "significantly reduce our carbon footprint." The WEF author went so far as to suggest that insects are "part of a virtuous eco-cycle."

When speaking recently at the WEF, Siemens AG chairman Jim Hagemann similarly called on people to stop eating meat to curb the specter of anthropogenic climate change.

"If a billion people stop eating meat, I tell you, it has a big impact. Not only does it have a big impact on the current food system, but it will also inspire innovation of food systems," Hagemann told a crowd of technocrats in Davos, Switzerland.

Extra to foisting a bug diet on the population, alarmists have recommended lab-grown cancer-based synthetic meat as an alternative to eating real beef.

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Giant flying insect found at Arkansas Walmart turns out to be 'super-rare' Jurassic-era bug

A man discovered a giant flying insect at a Walmart in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Little did he know that the strange bug was actually a Jurassic-era insect that hadn't been seen in more than 50 years.

Michael Skvarla – who was a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas at the time – went to get milk at Walmart in 2012. He noticed a large insect on the Walmart building.

"I remember it vividly, because I was walking into Walmart to get milk and I saw this huge insect on the side of the building," said Skvarla. "I thought it looked interesting, so I put it in my hand and did the rest of my shopping with it between my fingers. I got home, mounted it, and promptly forgot about it for almost a decade."

Flash forward to the fall of 2020, Skvarla – now the director of Penn State's Insect Identification Lab – reexamined the giant flying insect that he found at Walmart eight years earlier.

Skvarla was teaching the "Entomology 432: Insect Biodiversity and Evolution" course at Penn State. The pandemic forced the class to be taught remotely and the students joined the class via Zoom. Skvarla used his own personal insect collection as specimen samples for the course.

Skvarla showed the class the specimen that he found at the Arkansas Walmart in the Ozark Mountains. He originally classified the insect as an "antlion" – a dragonfly-like predatory insect. However, Skvarla noticed that some characteristics didn't match up with those of an antlion.

The first attribute he noticed to be different was that the insect was much larger than typical antlions. The insect had a massive wingspan of nearly 2 inches.

Skvarla's students attempted to determine what species the weird insect was.

"We were watching what Dr. Skvarla saw under his microscope and he’s talking about the features and then just kinda stops," said Codey Mathis – a doctoral candidate in entomology at Penn State. "We all realized together that the insect was not what it was labeled and was in fact a super-rare giant lacewing."

"I still remember the feeling. It was so gratifying to know that the excitement doesn’t dim, the wonder isn’t lost," Mathis added. "Here we were making a true discovery in the middle of an online lab course."

Skvarla and his colleagues performed molecular DNA analyses on the insect to confirm that it was a giant lacewing.

"It could have been 100 years since it was even in this area — and it’s been years since it's been spotted anywhere near it," Skvarla explained. "The next closest place that they've been found was 1,200 miles away, so very unlikely it would have traveled that far."

Skvarla donated the bug safely to the Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State – where scientists and students will research the rare insect further.

The giant lacewing, or Polystoechotes punctata, is an insect from the Jurassic era. The giant lacewing was thought to be extinct since the insect mysteriously disappeared from eastern North America in the 1950s.

Scientists hypothesize the giant lacewing may have disappeared because of artificial light, pollution, the lack of forest fires, or the introduction of non-native predators such as ground beetles.

You can watch a video interview with Michael Skvarla below.

Rare Jurassic-era flying insect found in Fayetteville www.youtube.com

Bugs to be used in bread, beer, and various other items 'intended for the general population,' courtesy of the EU

The next pizza or beer the American traveler to Europe consumes may be loaded with bug dust, thanks to the European Food Safety Authority.

According to the official journal of the EU, a company called Cricket One submitted an application in 2019 seeking authorization to place partially defatted house cricket powder on the market as novel food.

The company sought to clear it for use in the manufacture of various foods, such as "multigrain bread and rolls, crackers and breadsticks, cereal bars, dry pre-mixes for baked products, biscuits, dry stuffed and non-stuffed pasta-based products ... beer-like beverages, chocolate confectionary ... and meat preparations."

The EFSA concluded in early 2022 that cricket powder was "safe under the proposed conditions of use and use levels," despite admitting that there was "limited published evidence on food allergy related to insects in general, which equivocally linked the consumption of [house crickets] to a number of anaphylaxis events."

The EFSA also noted "evidence demonstrating that [the house cricket] contains a number of potentially allergenic proteins" and that such bug dust "may cause allergic reactions in persons that are allergic to crustaceans, molluscs and dust mites."

Prior the EFSA's bug dust approval, the New York Allergy and Sinus Centers reported that the protein in shellfish is also present in crickets, which means "that if you suffer from a shellfish allergy, there is a high chance that you will be allergic to crickets. The more you are exposed to crickets, the more likely you are to develop the allergy."

As of Jan. 24, 2023, Cricket One is permitted to peddle its pest feed in Europe.

Bloomberg indicated that yellow mealworms and grasshoppers have similarly been approved.

According to the Cricket One's website, "Cricket protein is nutritionally more efficient, high performing and complete. It is a reliable and sustainable source of alternative protein that does not harm the planet."

The company cites among its "sustainable goals" both "climate action" and "responsible consumption and production."

This push for people to consume bug dust reveals climate alarmists are not keen simply to discourage people from having children or to bereave Western nations of stable and ethical energy supply.

A 2017 review published in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development suggested that rather than meat, humans could instead try eating weeds, micro-algae, and bugs.

When speaking recently at the WEF, Siemens AG chairman Jim Hagemann similarly called on people to stop eating meat to curb the specter of anthropogenic climate change.

The multimillionaire predicted that "we will have proteins not coming from meat in the future. They will probably taste even better. ... They will be zero carbon and much healthier than the kind of food that we eat today. That is a mission we need to get on."

\u201cSiemens AG Chairman Jim Hagemann at WEF: "If a billion people stop eating meat, I tell you, it has a big impact. Not only does it have a big impact on the current food system, but it will also inspire innovation of food systems..."\u201d
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) 1674155754

A 2018 research article in Frontiers in Nutrition discussing how best to foist insects on human beings suggested that Westerners averse to eating lizard food "have a stereotyped knowledge of insects and other species, and the association of some of those animals with decaying matter and feces could have led to psychological contamination of the entire category."

The article intimated that social engineering may be necessary to bring about a "large-scale behavioral change in favor of insect-based diets."

The promotion of bug consumption on the basis of its purported environmental benefits isn't working, the researchers conceded, suggesting instead that "interventions emphasizing the delicious and unique culinary experience [would] lead to a higher increase in insect consumption."

Forbes recently reduced the matter of gustatory delight to mere utility, suggesting that "growing livestock for meat is an astoundingly inefficient rate of return on investment." The Forbes author alleged that extra to the efficiency of bugs, their consumption may also be good for national security.

Ligaya Mishan, writing in the New York Times, went the extra mile to couch her justification of eating creepy crawlers in Scripture, noting that John the Baptist too survived on locusts.

MarketWatch reported that the global edible insects market, valued at $486.6 million in 2019, is expected to reach $1.2 billion by the end of 2026.

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Bizarre fungus hijacks cicadas, transforming them into killer nymphomaniacs

UN Set To Amplify War On Meat At Upcoming COP28 Climate Conference

NYC plagued by insect swarms, smoky haze

Mother says she's feeding baby cricket products and plans to eventually add worms, ants, and grasshoppers

'Dark climate change religion': Middle school teacher feeds sixth-graders bugs and climate alarmist propaganda

What are the details?

Bugging out

Giant flying insect found at Arkansas Walmart turns out to be 'super-rare' Jurassic-era bug

Bugs to be used in bread, beer, and various other items 'intended for the general population,' courtesy of the EU

13 Reasons Most People Will Never Go Vegan

Biden-Harris Admin Races To Dish Out $25 Billion for Green Energy Before Trump Takes Office, Sparking Fraud Fears

Big Oil turns on Trump over Paris accord exit for all the wrong reasons

IT BEGINS: Rachel Maddow's Massive Salary Slashed at MSNBC

What are the details?

Bugging out

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