00:00There's something very wrong with this moth. Take a close look. It looks like it's covered
00:06in this cream-colored spiky goo. This is what a normal moth looks like.
00:12So what happened to this one? Well, one day, a microscopic spore from a parasitic fungus
00:20landed on this moth. Day by day, the fungus grew. It digested the moth's insides and enveloped
00:29its entire body. Then, it sprouted these cute little branches to produce more spores,
00:36which flew away and infected more moths. Like this one, pinned inside this wooden box.
00:44When I saw this, I thought these fungi must only infect moths. But I was wrong.
00:50Cause take a look here. It's a small spider parasitized by another fungus. Here it is up close.
00:59Do you see its abdomen? There's the fungus sprouting out of it. This spider is only the beginning.
01:07Here's a fungus that's wrapped around the body of a beetle larva, like a tight little blanket.
01:13Here's another growing out of the head of a larva instead. And look inside this tube. There's a
01:20parasitic fungus growing out of a caterpillar from this end right here. This one grew to be
01:27absolutely massive. Over a foot long. Now I thought these fungi must kill the insects right away.
01:39But that's not the case. Sometimes they keep them alive. Look here. This is what a normal cicada looks
01:48like. This is what a cicada looks like that's been infected by a parasitic fungus. Can you spot the
01:55difference? How about from this angle? The fungus has entirely replaced the end of this cicada's abdomen.
02:05But the thing is, the infected cicada continues to live. And when it flies around, it sprinkles
02:13little fungus spores on the ground below, like an infectious salt shaker. Now it looks like just
02:21the bodies of these insects are infected. But that's not the case. When these fungi take over an insect,
02:28they infect its body and its mind. Listen to this. If a male cicada is infected,
02:37the fungus will make it act like a female cicada. Specifically, it will start to flicker its wings,
02:44which is a behavior only seen in female cicadas that are ready to mate. Uninfected males will see
02:54these fake flickers and be entirely tricked. These uninfected males will come to mate with the infected
03:03males, only to become infected themselves. Specimen use made possible by the University of Michigan
03:12Museum of Zoology and Herbarium.
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