Talk:Massospora cicadina

Infects Annual Cicadas Too?[edit]

I have been seeing most 2-5 year annual "dog day" cicdas infected by this fungus too in east-central West Virginia, as of early to mid-August 2021. The illustration implies that too. Very few of the normal August cicadas are being heard there. This article may need to be revised.

Hi! Most likely it is a different species of Massospora. The best people to contact to know for sure would be Dr. Matt Kasson or Dr. Brian Lovett. TelosCricket (talk) 18:33, 23 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Alkaloids[edit]

Here is the reverted text:

These behavioural changes could be attributed to an amphetamine alkaloid, Cathinone, that is found in relative abundance in the fungus' fruiting bodies of stage I infected adults.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Boyce|first=Greg R.|last2=Gluck-Thaler|first2=Emile|last3=Slot|first3=Jason C.|last4=Stajich|first4=Jason E.|last5=Davis|first5=William J.|last6=James|first6=Tim Y.|last7=Cooley|first7=John R.|last8=Panaccione|first8=Daniel G.|last9=Eilenberg|first9=Jørgen|last10=Licht|first10=Henrik H. De Fine|last11=Macias|first11=Angie M.|date=2018-12-18|title=Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens|url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/375105v3|journal=bioRxiv|language=en|pages=375105|doi=10.1101/375105}}</ref>

I am not opposed to adding the fact that Massospora cicadina produces cathinone. But from the source cited The basis of hypersexualization remains unknown; the compounds we identified may be involved wholly or partly in this phenomenon, and/or may serve other roles outside this observed phenotype. There is too much uncertainty in this statement to be included in wikipedia, imo. Plus, this is a pre-print that has not gone through peer review; so, I don't trust it was a reliable source. From the peer reviewed version {{tqWhile these secondary metabolites from Massospora, especially cathinone, may help improve endurance required to engage with other conspecifics given their debilitating infections, activity-level effects of amphetamine and psilocybin cannot easily explain the display of female-typical courtship behaviors by male cicadas}} and However, the atypical mating behaviors of other cicada species may be better explained by Massospora-mediated hormonal changes incidental to amphetamine and psilocybin production. Again, even the authors aren't remotely certain the alkaloids are resposible for the observed behavioral changes. They are grasping at straws. TelosCricket (talk) 02:23, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Do you reckon adding the production of cathinone as minor paragraph in the stage I section? Or should that be a whole other section? Fungi editor (talk) 20:30, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

To help with the flow of a discussion, people here generally indent using a ":" before their comment. Each responder adds another ":". So, if/when you reply, you'd add "::" before your comment. :)

I think it should go in it's own section, to be honest. That way you could expand on it some. I.e., not just that the fungus produces it but that it is found in some stages of the life cycle and not others (if I am remembering the paper correctly). And so it doesn't get lost.

I didn't see that you were a new editor at first. Welcome to the project! You should check out WikiProject Fungi. TelosCricket (talk) 23:46, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for telling me the conventions. I'll try to write up something for another section. I am hesitant at first because there isn't much to add, so I thought to just mention the alkaloids in an existing section. Fungi editor (talk) 02:14, 21 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

True there isn't much to add. If you want to add it to the stage I section, that should be fine too. TelosCricket (talk) 13:34, 21 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]