It’s cicada season, which means the volume outside has been turned way up to a constant, deafening drone that drowns out thought. I wake to empty shells stuck to my tent and car tyres, and I find cicadas everywhere. Dead, injured, and still alive. They’re embedded in the grass, climbing on tree branches, and in weka mouths. There’s no shortage of food for the birds here!

And if the odds were already stacked against them, out on the trail, I’ve come across two main parasitic fungi that target cicadas: both the adults and the pupae buried underground.

The first three images show an adult cicada infected with Beauveria bassiana, also known as “icing sugar fungus.” The last three images show Cordyceps sinclairii (formerly Isaria sinclairii), a name from the Greek kordyle (“club”) and kephalē (“head”).

On the cicada pupa (tatarakihi), the fungus pushes up out of the ground in tufts that eventually become more prominent than the host itself. Antennae reach up through the earth, and a powdery spore cluster forms at the tip like a beacon. Ready to take to the air and make contact with new insects. When I flick it with my finger, a white spore cloud puffs out and dusts the ground. There are hundreds poking out of the forest floor this time of year!

If curious, I’ve written more about Cordyceps here: myconeer.com/p/zombie-a…