After 17 years underground, Brood X Cicadas are emerging in Michigan and in 15 other states. Like something from a Grateful Dead concert or a scene from "Night of the Living Dead"  some of these bugs are under the influence of mind controlling drugs and it's making their butts fall off! 

With missing butts and full hearts, here's the gist...A mind-controlling fungus is spreading among the insects which has been identified as Massospora. The fungus contains similar chemicals to those in hallucinogenic mushrooms. Yes, the winged bugs are on magic 'shrooms. Cue Terrapin Station.

Getty Images/ThinkStock/GettyStock
Getty Images/ThinkStock/GettyStock
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The fungus will invade their bodies and eat away their insides until their abdomens crack, fall off and get replaced with a ball of white spores. While under the influence of psilocybin or under the control of the fungus in some other way, the cicadas won’t even notice. Lill, a cicada expert and chair of biology at George Washington University told The South Bend Tribune,

"It’s a sexually transmitted fungus. They engage in normal courtship behavior, yet their abdomen is a big fungal mass. Instead, the attempted copulation results in spreading the fungus even more.”

Philadelphia Enquirer
Philadelphia Enquirer
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According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the infection cannot spread to humans or other organisms. The "Zombie Cicadas" infected aren't a threat to humans, however, they are killing each other.

PBS’ Anna Rothschild added in an episode of “Gross Science",

“Imagine if, after a lifetime underground, you only had a few glorious weeks to live in the sun, eat and mate, and then your butt fell off.”

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