Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Cicada-killing fungus a health benefit

By Dr Mike Dickison
NZ Herald·
28 Apr, 2017 04:41 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

TINY WHITE FOREST FUNGUS: Poking up above the soil at Waitahinga Trails, the popcorn-like fruiting body Isaria sinclairii conceals a gruesome surprise.

TINY WHITE FOREST FUNGUS: Poking up above the soil at Waitahinga Trails, the popcorn-like fruiting body Isaria sinclairii conceals a gruesome surprise.

If you go down to the woods today, unless you've got very sharp eyes, you may not notice anything surprising.

But look down and on the forest floor you might see tiny white popcorn-shaped objects poking up out of the leaf litter.

Easily overlooked, these are fungal headstones marking the graves of unfortunate young cicadas.

We're all familiar with noisy cicadas appearing over summer, but for most of their life they live underground.

BENEATH THE GROUND: The fungus can be traced down to the bodies of parasitised cicada, several centimetres underground.
BENEATH THE GROUND: The fungus can be traced down to the bodies of parasitised cicada, several centimetres underground.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The cicada nymph is a pale wingless creature that has a subterranean existence, sucking sap from tree roots. After at least three years it emerges to become a short-lived winged adult. Although the underground life might seem safe and sheltered, a cicada nymph faces one danger - fungal infection.

The fungus in question, Isaria sinclairii, infects cicadas and other burrowing insects. It eventually kills and consumes them completely from the inside out, leaving just a few bits of exoskeleton marking the outline of the nymph.

In a particularly rainy summer, like the one we've just had, the fungus will then send up a fruiting body that protrudes maybe a centimetre above the forest floor.

Looking rather like tiny popcorn on a stalk, it smears anything it touches with dusty white spores, which grow into pale fungal threads in the soil until they encounter an unfortunate insect.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A close relative of Isaria is Ophiocordyceps robertsii, the so-called "vegetable caterpillar" (poorly named, because a fungus is neither animal nor vegetable).

This species infects the large caterpillars of the forest ghost moth (Aoraia enysii) which live in the leaf litter; its fruiting body resembles a brown spike.

The parasitised caterpillars, called awheto, were eaten by Maori and when dried and ground up made a bluish-black dye for moko. Awheto are often dug up as curios, and the museum has several in its collection.

A fungus that infects insects might seem like just a curiosity, another odd story about the web of life that makes up the forest.

ALL THAT REMAINS: Although the bodies of the cicada have been completely consumed by fungus, some of their exoskeleton persists to show they were once insects.
ALL THAT REMAINS: Although the bodies of the cicada have been completely consumed by fungus, some of their exoskeleton persists to show they were once insects.

But it's more than that.

In the 1990s Japanese scientists examining different fungal species for their possible medicinal uses cultured Isaria sinclairii in the lab, and managed to extract a chemical from it that acted as a powerful suppressant on the human immune system.

This is a big deal, because autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis affect millions of people around the world. A synthetic version of the chemical they extracted, named fingolimod, has now been approved as a multiple sclerosis treatment, and it may turn out to be useful for treating cancer as well.

When we talk about preserving biodiversity, most people tend to be quite self-centred. We like forests and pretty birds, and are willing to spend conservation dollars preserving them, but draw the line at saving insects, or leeches, or obscure little fungi.

Conservationists often argue that all living things have some right to existence, regardless of whether they're valued by human beings or not.

But another argument is to point to the obscure cicada-killing fungus Isaria, which turned out to contain a treatment for a disease that afflicts millions. What other wonders lurk undiscovered in the New Zealand bush, amongst species overlooked, or on the verge of extinction?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mike Dickison is curator of Natural History at the Whanganui Regional Museum.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Why Whanganui is in for a warmer than normal winter

02 Jul 09:14 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

How a white picket fence symbolises a significant Whanganui family

02 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Rangitīkei fencer regains Golden Pliers title

02 Jul 06:00 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Why Whanganui is in for a warmer than normal winter

Why Whanganui is in for a warmer than normal winter

02 Jul 09:14 PM

There's a 60% chance of above-average temperatures between July and September.

How a white picket fence symbolises a significant Whanganui family

How a white picket fence symbolises a significant Whanganui family

02 Jul 06:00 PM
Rangitīkei fencer regains Golden Pliers title

Rangitīkei fencer regains Golden Pliers title

02 Jul 06:00 PM
Athletics: Early training years bring lessons in preparation

Athletics: Early training years bring lessons in preparation

02 Jul 06:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP